this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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I have a jack. I do use it on occasion. But man some of you really, really hate Bluetooth.
It's not THAT bad. Maybe your phones just have a really shitty transmitter/receiver? Sure, it's not as good as it can get with a jack.
But I also don't want to have wires hanging while running or biking. Being able to change volume and songs without picking up my phone from pocket is also very convenient.
I still want a jack in my phone. But I really don't get the extreme hate on Bluetooth. It's not 2005 anymore. Bluetooth technology has progressed.
Wired headsets can do that too
Not all, in fact most, of the higher quality headphones that justify the inconvenience of the cables won’t have those in-line controls. I know not everyone uses wired because it’s better quality (privacy is a legitimate concern) but that’s the only reason I ever did, and none of my good headphones had in-line controls.
There’s also the fact that in-line controls create another opportunity for sound quality degradation, and my own searching suggests that it almost always has a negative impact on the overall sound quality of a pair of headphones.
Barring privacy concerns, I really don’t see the inconvenience of always having to deal with a cable as being lesser than having to periodically make sure my AirPods are charged. If I used them for 8+ hours a day, I would probably feel differently though.
The big issue for me is that there is any disadvantage between generations. My current 5 year old flagship has a headphone jack, expandable storage, and support for Bluetooth 5.0 which is all that most devices need. The only new phones that still have all 3 are cheap budget phones that lack in other areas compared to the one I already have.
I felt the same way. I recently broke my LG V20 and had to "upgrade" to a newer phone, and nothing felt like it was actually better in terms of features than my phone from 7 years ago
Yea, that’s been the case for phone development for a while now. Advancements aren’t coming in tactile feature sets anymore. I remember when every new generation of phone had a cool new price of technology that changed how you interacted with the phone, it gave me a reason to upgrade every year, sometimes more.
Now I’m on an iPhone 12 Pro and I see zero functional difference between my near 3 year old phone and my partner’s 14. The only reason I’ll be upgrading to the 15 will be for USBC.
I'm still using mine because of that.
I miss it so much. I'm on a Fairphone 4 now, and while the newer version of Android is nice, there are so many things I wish I had back. The secondary screen on the top and the fingerprint reader on the back chief among them.
Damn, wasnt that one of the last phones to have an IR Blaster?
IR blaster, FM tuner, removable/replaceable battery (with lots of expanded 3rd party batteries available), secondary screen for checking notifications, hi-fi DAC, headphone jack, fingerprint reader in my preferred position (on the back), one of the first phones to use multiple camera lenses for different zoom levels. It was an incredibly feature-rich phone, which isn't a thing anymore sadly.
Society unironically peaked in 2016
Nice pick. I went from my dying LG V60 to the S23 Plus. It was inevitable...
So I have a:
These are all fairly recent devices, with the Sony one being the most recent headphones in it's series, running the latest firmware too, which was released last month.
Now here are my issues:
- Fold 4: When I get a call on Google Meet or Duo and I turn on my headphones, the audio doesn't work. I have to disconnect the call, close the app, and reconnect for it to work.
- MacBook: Similar thing happens with Microsoft Teams. In this case though, my headphones is already paired with my MacBook and connected, so I fire up Teams (from scratch) and dial in to a meeting. You'd expect it to work fine right, but the audio doesn't work, even though Teams detects my headphones as the output device. I have to turn my headphones off and on during the call (or reboot my MacBook) for it to work properly.
I can reproduce these issues consistently. I'm not a 100% sure if it's an issue with my Sony headphones, but the point is, all these products that I've listed are fairly recent and fairly expensive, and I deserve a better user experience. Bluetooth has indeed come a long way, and at least for me, audio quality isn't really an issue, but the fact that these sort of connectivity issues are still occurring on recent, premium devices, is unacceptable.
Those all sound like software issues from Sony on their headset, rather than limitations of Bluetooth. I have a pair of BOSS that is connected to both my laptop and phone at the same time, and the switch between them is seemless.
Listen to music on phone. Pause, go to laptop. Put on a video on YouTube. And it instantly switches to my laptop for sound.
Be on a call on discord from my phone while I'm out. Get home, enter the call from laptop, and boom. Automatically switched from phone to laptop and I don't have to change a single setting.
Sorry you have a bad experience with SONY. But I can assure you. It's not a Bluetooth problem. It's a SONY problem.
Well, my point still stands. How is one supposed to know that this particular headset had these sort of issues? I did extensive research before buying mine, and no one reported any such issues. Admittedly, it was still fairly new when I purchased it so there may not have that many reviews, but Sony isn't some random brand and their audio gear is generally well received.
On the other hand, I could just pick up any cheapo TRRS headset and know that it'll work without a cinch. We're just not there yet with wireless headsets if we can't even rely on reputed brands to work consistently.
I don't think your point stands at all.
If you're asking how someone is supposed to know without knowing then the answer is you can't. Obviously.
You looked at biased reviews that had clearly not tested the product in the manner of which you wanted to use it. You made a bad purchase. I'm sorry. But that's not the fault of Bluetooth. That's the fault of Sony.
Are you going to claim that smartphones are hot garbage just because Nokia made a really shitty one? They were a reputable phone brand too. Until they weren't. Maybe you just learned that the hard way with Sony.
The thing is, it's not just me/Sony. There's been several reports of similar sort of issues for wireless headphones in general.
And in comparison, there's very little issues with wired, so my point still stands - wireless audio still has issues - I don't care if it's a fault with Bluetooth or an implementation bug on the headphones or the app or the OS, the point is, there are still issues that you may be unaware of when buying a wireless headphones, when there's next to none with wired.
You're quick to blame Sony, but if you can't trust a reputable Japanese brand who've been making audio equipment for over 70 years now, who can you trust? Afterall, reviews are "biased" and can't be trusted, so I guess it's down to pure luck then, right? And even if you get lucky and think you've made a good buy, there's no guarantee that something won't break with a future update. For instance, here's a thread where someone's mic stopped working after a Windows update - turns out that the fault was with the Intel Bluetooth drivers, and downgrading the drivers or the update fixes it. Who wants to put up with this sort of nonsense when you've got a meeting or an interview to attend to, and suddenly you find your headphones no longer work because of a fricking update?
This sort of unreliability is precisely why many people prefer sticking to the tried and trusted wired headphones.
It's not worth arguing with @atomic Apparently my pixel, with pixel buds and watch with wearos is also a software issue. As if the software issue might not lie within the software that drives the Bluetooth protocol, I. E. Bluetooth itself🙄
Your argument is irrational. So because Ford makes terrible quality cars all cars are bad? I mean. If we can't trust the company that made the first industrially made car, then who can we trust? After all, there's so very little that can go wrong with a bicycle or ones own legs.
I talked about Sony because YOU said you had problem with them. Where you admit that you bought it very close after launch where not many reviews had come out.
You think wired headsets can't get fucked by faulty drivers? Have you ever had an issue with your audio drivers as a whole? I have. Doesn't matter if you use wired or wireless then.
I'm telling you point blank. There are good products where it works seemless between different devices. But you just won't have it cause you had a bad experience once with a poor purchase from your end.
If you wanna use wired by my guest. More products on the shelf for me. But your stance against Bluetooth as a whole is ridiculous. Shall we say wired headsets are garbage because what it the wire gets damaged? Man cable close to the the male connection always end up breaking! Terribly unreliable!
In all my life I've never had a problem with wired headset not working due to driver issues. Sure there were the occasional overall sound card issues, but those were dating back to the Windows 9x days. Also, theoretically and statistically speaking, a wireless setup has more parts and more complexities, so it's more likely to fail.
Citation needed. And I repeat my previous question - how exactly is one supposed to discover these set of devices? What if you say use a particular model of Thinkpad and the device wasn't tested against it? I doubt there exists a database somewhere that has list of every wireless headset tested against every Bluetooth capable device. So ultimately it's up to the luck of draw, and that's not a very good user experience. Whereas with wired, I can he 100% sure a wired headset will work if a device has the matching aux jack.
Also, the wire getting damaged isn't really a problem, any decent wired headset would have a replaceable wire, so you can always swap it out with any standard TRS/TRRS cable and you're good to go. Whereas with wireless, the battery is almost guaranteed to degrade after a few years, and it can be really hard or even impossible to replace, depending on the model.
Aha... so now that it comes to wired, the "how are you supposed to know" doesn't apply anymore?
You bought a shitty wireless and use that to hate on the entire protocol.
I've bought bad wired ones where the wire breaks easily, but the same logic doesn't seem to apply there for you.
Any decent wired headset has easily replaceable cables?
Any decent wireless won't have the problems you've mentioned. And the battery is not going to be a problem for many many years. My boss ones are on their fourth year. Still get out 7-8 hours of non stop usage which is more than enough for me.
But sure. They do degrade. That's factually true and inevitable. It's part of the price for the convenience of not having to deal with a cable.
But you hit the nail on the head yourself. "Any decent headset". Same thing can be applied to wired, as wireless. Buy decent products and you won't have issues.
"How are you supposed to know" goes for both too. You can't tailor your argument to only work for one type and ignore it for the other.
The WH-1000XM5 isn't a shitty wireless headphone, it has issues but I wouldn't call it shitty. If it really was that shitty then it wouldn't have a positive rating on sites like Amazon, WhatHiFi, Soundguys etc. In saying that, I do consider it worse than a wired headphone, but that I believe is because of the limitations of current wireless technology. Thankfully it also has a wired mode which works fine, and the ANC works well too, so it's not completely useless to the point that I'd call it "shitty". It certainly is flawed, and annoying at times.
That's because wires are cheap and easy to repair or replace. What will you do when a wireless headphones breaks or doesn't work as intended? The only realistic option is to replace it, which will either create more e-waste, or just be a PITA in general, trying to find another headphones that work.
Of course. I'm not taking about those cheapo $2 headsets that you'd find in a dollar store.
But mine did though, and also, lithium batteries degrade over time, and that is an undeniable fact. It's also an undeniable fact that it's extremely difficult or even next to impossible to replace the battery on most of these headphones.
Good for you, but that's not enough for me. Every now and then I take a 16+ hour flight (with maybe a 6-10 hr halt), so that battery life isn't going to cut it. And with most of these headphones, you can't use them while charging either.
And my original point still stands. How exactly is one supposed to figure out what's a decent wireless headset? The WH-1000XM5 is still rated very highly on pretty much every website. By all definitions, it's supposed to be a decent headset. If you've got some sort of secret website or method to determine if a headset is decent or not, I'm all ears.
Not really, because my experience is primarily with wired headphones, so I've already got a winning formula for selecting decent wired headphones - the ones which have a replaceable wire are decent, anything beyond that would be nitpicking on the audio quality like audiophiles do, or minor things like ear fit and noise isolation etc - but all that would boil down to personal preference. On the other hand, I don't have a working formula for picking decent wireless headphones, so if you do, please share.
You're so irrationally upset about this that you can't even see how you contradict yourself in your essays.
And why are you quoting me, quoting you?
It's clearly not very decent then if you have those problems.
Your personal lack of knowledge and experience in other fields is not an argument against anything. We get it. YOU don't like wireless because YOU had a bad experience. That's ok. But why you seem to think your lack of knowledge is somehow an argument against wireless=bad is unclear to me.
I do this cool thing where I go to my store. And I ask to try the headset I'm interested in. I get personal hands on experience. I connect it to my phone, and to my watch. And I see how it handles two connections at the same time. It's not rocket science.
Yeah, that's not really an option where I live (New Zealand). We have very limited choices of both physical stores, as well as models available. In my case, the WH-1000XM5 wasn't available in any physical stores when I bought it, also, I ordered it online directly from Sony (another reason for ordering direct from Sony is I get a discount thru my company).
That sounds like a giant. You problem. And not a wireless problem.
How is simply living in my country a "me" problem? Also, the fact remains that wireless headsets in general have way more problems compared to wired, and that has nothing to do with me.
No. It just means you have more problems with purchasing wireless products. How many people live in New Zealand? 5 million? So wireless headsets are bad, because 5 million kiwis can't go to a store and try them. Is that your reasoning?
What are these way more problems? You've listed 2.
Bad wireless connection Batteries can run out.
Wired headsets can have Bad wires or bad male/female connectors too so not really an exclusive problem.
But sure. Batteries CAN run out. Good thing most decent wireless headsets also come with a wired option.
This doesn't make them generally worse. It just makes them worse for YOU. Because you're a kiwi who can't go to a Playtech store or something.
It's not just me, it's the technology in general.
As I said before this isn't really an issue as you can easily replace the wire, but more than anything, it's extremely unlikely that there would be a bad wire/connector on a brand new headset.
Let's go over this once and for all. Because I'm sick of having to repeat myself.
Wireless interfere and other connectivity/pairing issues can be summed up into 1 complaints.
I have had a pair of Jabra earplugs and boss headphones combined for over 7 years now.
Not once have i ever experienced connectivity issues while paired. I have had problems pairing to certain phones. But since that was specific to that phone. I'm not exactly going to blame the earplugs.
That sounds very specific to certain headsets or earplugs. It's a product issue. Not a Bluetooth issue. As mentioned many times. My headset does it seamlessly between devices. It's not a problem if you buy a good pair of headsets/earplugs.
That could probably be the case sometimes. Most likely won't last very long if you report the problem.
My jabras are going strong despite being almost 7 years old. They easily last an entire day of normal use. But yes battery do degrade. That's part of the price you pay for the convenience of not needing a wire. Maybe I'll have to replace them once they hit the 10 year mark. But I'm OK with that. Sounds worth it to me.
That is very personal don't you think? These days remembering to charge things is as easy as remembering to put them in their place. An organized person will have little trouble putting things in the same place once they are done with them.
I can't replace a wire on my wired headset to my computer. Would have to open them up (somehow while not breaking them) and re-soldier a new cable and THAT is a real hassle. Gonna have to buy a soldiering iron too. Probably best for most to let a repair shop do it then. Same as a battery replacement.
That's just anecdotal, that doesn't mean that other products or other users haven't had any issues.
As I mentioned before, I don't care that whether it's a "Bluetooth" isssue or not, it's a common issue experienced with that class of devices. The point is, the issue exists, whether or not it's a fault of the actual Bluetooth protocol isn't the point here.
Again, anecdotal. I highly doubt that your battery would last for 10 years (and still have any useful capacity), which would be going against the well established averages for lithium ion. Many popular wireless earbuds, such as the Apple Airpods, have a lifespan of only 2-3 years.
The fact is that most wireless headsets will turn into e-waste - and dangerous e-waste at that - in a much, much shorter time frame compared to wired. That does not sound okay to me.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/your-wireless-earbuds-are-trash-eventually/
And yet, it's still an additional activity that one may not want to engage in. It's a pretty common complaint, so it's not as personal as you think. Lots of people avoid wireless products for this reason alone.
And as I said before, any decent headset will have a replaceable wire. But even if you can't replace or repair the wire yourself, it's typically not an issue for a repair shop to do it, and it's pretty cheap too. Whereas it may not be that straightforward or cheap to replace a built-in battery - for starters, your repair shop may not even have the battery in stock (especially if it's a 7+ year old, not super-popular model), assuming someone even makes a replacement battery, you'll need the shop to order it in, which can take a long time, considering most airlines prohibit shipping loose batteries in cargo - which means that the battery will need to be shipped by land and/or sea. And even then, it doesn't solve the e-waste problem.
You're really just repeating the same fallacy over and over. If you go to a bakery to buy bread, and then didn't like the bread.
Are you going to blame it on bread in general. Or are you going to blame the baker?
What you're doing here, is blaming the bread for being bread, competed ignoring the fact that the baker simply doesn't know what he's doing.
Any argument I put forth you simply refuse to accept. And it's amazing to me, that you who doesn't prefer to use wireless. Have such a vast experience with them that you can speak in general terms for all of them.
Your bad purchase does not reflect the entire category.
Apple using low battery life on their product does not reflect on the entire category.
Their apple watch has battery that last for 1 day. My Samsung galaxy watch lasts for 5 days
You complain they don't have battery. I tell you that is not really the case, good earplugs can last for many years. But you simply refuse to accept that, citing a different brand?
The amount of wired earplugs that lay on the landfills VASTLY outnumber wireless earplugs.
You don't like wireless because you're stuck 10 years in the past and can't get over that it has progressed a lot. Citing your bad purchase as proof. You ask how to know what to buy. I tell you how. And you refuse it.
I like wireless because I have good products that work incredibly well without issues with wonderful features that is not only convenient, but makes my life easier.
There is not a single wired product that can do what my jabras allow. And that's a fact.
If wireless are so generally bad as you think. Why do everyone use them? If they were so bad as you think. Wouldn't everyone be fed up? The answer is simple. You're stuck in a personal grudge where any argument for them will be brushed off by you as not representative of wireless as a whole. Or you simply refuse to even believe it.
Yes. My jabras really are that old. Yes, their battery is still that good. Despite you believing it or not. You citing apple airpods is irrelevant. They have a short lifespan. So I don't buy them. Because I don't like to buy bad products. It really is that simple.
And neither does gone one good purchase reflect upon the entire category.
The fact that lithium-ion batteries aren't good after 3 years is well established, there are many articles on this from reputed sources. It's not something I made up.
I'm not refusing it, it's merely not an option for me, given where I live.
They don't actually. Check my poll results, check any other polls - you'll see that majority of the users still prefer wired.
It's not, because they have the majority of the market share, and are therefore representative of the market, and their battery life is well documented. Your experience with Jabra is anecdotal with nothing to back it up. Therefore, your single good experience with Jabars is just as meaningless as my single bad experience with Sony.
Do I now? Because whenever I'm outside. I see people with wireless earbuds. I see wireless headphones. But you know what I almost never see? Wired headphones.
The fact my jabras have more than enough battery for that to not be noticeable after 7 years makes it irrelevant.
And yes, you citing apple IS irrelevant because you're doing it as a response to my success with Jabra earbuds. You're using them as some kind of argument against why me having good products that are working well doesn't actually matter.
With your logic. Wired headphones suck because the 30 dollar pair I bought once were really bad. So therefore they're all bad, and any good wired headphone you can mention. Is just an outliner that doesn't reflect wired headphones as a whole. Because the majority of wired headphones are cheap garbage.
I'm sorry, that I have really good Bluetooth wireless headphones and earbuds. It must truly shatter your world since you try to put so much effort into discrediting me for telling you they exist.
If you want good wireless products, that doesn't have the problems you've mentioned. They exist. You can buy them.
If you want earbuds that last for more than 3 years. Don't buy apple.
I know your argument are shit, Because I'm sitting on the actual evidence and proof that your descriptions are not accurate. I'm telling you they work. And your response is "but these other things didn't work!" So? Don't get those other things then.
There are millions of bad wired headphones. But I assume, you don't buy those. You buy the good ones. Apply the same logic to wireless. And you won't have the problems mentioned.
Please wash off your makeup. White and red is not a good look on anyone.
Again, that's just anecdotal. Show me an actual survey or some real statistics which says that users prefer wired over wireless.
The fact that you don't have any evidence to show it is irrelevant.
It isn't, because Apple earbuds are a market leader and their battery life is well documented. Show me some evidence that Jabra earbuds are good even after 7 years, and I'll accept it as relevant.
If that's your logic then by my logic all wireless headphones are bad because of my experience.
So is your experience with Jabra.
Actually it doesn't, because you haven't provided any evidence. A claim of a 7 year battery life on a frequently used lithium-ion battery in a device such as a headset, when the industry average is 2-3 years, is utterly ridiculous and unbelievable.
My guess would be its Sonys fault. I have a JBL Flip 5 which works perfectly with my Phone but my Sony srs xg 300 has similar issues as u discribed.
I have a pixel 6a. I have pixel buds. And I have a fossil sport gen 5 wear os watch.
Whne my phone rings, it's a crap shoot which device will output audio and receive my voice.
Bluetooth sucks donkey balls.
That's not a Bluetooth problem. It's a device problem. Google wrote shitty software.
I got some boss headphones and Jabra earbuds. Never had any of those problems with my devices. Not even when switching between devices. The boss is always connected to both my laptop and phone. And the switch between which one it should use is seemless and pain-free. But like I said. It's a question about software rather than protocol.
That's a problem with the phone, not Bluetooth itself
I don't hate bluetooth. I hate not having the headphone jack. Bluetooth headphones are nice but don't cover all use cases. It doesn't have to be a one or the other thing. Especially when they aren't adding anything additional on the phones that don't have a headphone jack. They're just cutting features. The phones aren't even cheaper for it.
I agree. I want a jack on my phone. I probably use Bluetooth 9/10 times. But that 1/10 I'm really glad I got a jack. It's fine if the phone has to be a little bit thicker to fit a jack... use the extra space for a larger battery while you're at it.
Not sure when I'll buy a new phone. Still using a Galaxy S10. But if it doesn't have a jack. I'm not interested. And give me access to a SD memory card too. Fuck internal storage.
I really like that bluetooth devices can still work at distances farther than a typical cable would allow. I have a decently-sized studio apartment and I can see my computer screen from most places. It's nice to continue watching a video as I move around the apartment to clean, get up to stretch, play with my cat, etc.
You could probably get wired headphones that long, but then you'd be dealing with that giant cable all the time. Or you'd have to constantly swap cables and interrupt the audio during that time. My AirPods work reliably from 15ft away. I can't argue with that convenience.
I live in a 3 bedroom 1000sqft house and walk around with my AirPods on between rooms no problem. I’d need a 100’+ cable to have that type of freedom with wired. Range is unparalleled between the two.
That said, this is a phone we’re talking about which is quite easy to bring with me between rooms, and even if I’d prefer to be charging my phone there’s a high likelihood I’d be going back to my desk shortly anyway since I predominantly use my AirPods while I’m working.
It's better than it was, but it still isn't great. I would rate Bluetooth as tolerable now, and sometimes frustrating depending on the devices being used.
Wired has a charm of simplicity that is unrivaled. Dependable, quick and easy to use.
The hanging wires were the #1 reason why I always cracked the screen of my phone. I would hold it in my hand and listening to something and then one wrong swing with my arm and the phone was on the floor with a cracked screen. Since I switched to bluetooth headphones it has literary stopped happening, I have not cracked any screen in the last 5 years.
I remember that. But with portable CD players... mom was not happy when I broke the second one after accidentally sending it to the ground by getting caught in the cable.