Current Events > Do any of you still use wired earbuds or headphones?

(+) Yeah! (+)

like mainly when listening to music on your mp3 player...phone...

wireless sounds bad. wired for life

I have wired studio headphones for practicing music, but otherwise I prefer wireless ear buds

i don't really use my phone for music unless i'm flying and that's like once a year, so i just yank my computer headset to use for that.

Yes, I use wired headphones all the time.

Tried wireless earbuds and couldn't get used to them.

I used them up until like 2 years ago before I finally swapped to a wireless pair and have never looked back. If you're commuting/traveling and using wired ones it's just such a hassle with tangles and getting caught on stuff. I only use wired if I'm using my desktop computer.

Wires are pure, wireless is sin.

Nothing wrong with wires as long as you understand the trade-offfs made between Wired/Wireless.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

i have $200 BT headphones that clearly sound better wired

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I can only assume that the wired headphones were similarly cheap, or that the source was pretty low quality.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

That isn't true.

There are actual measurable differences between high and low quality headphones. And high and low quality sound reproduction.

If you think the only difference between $12 Amazon earbuds and quality headphones is branding, then you are just plain wrong.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


You're a casual, not an audiophile.

As long as the audio quality meets a certain min thresh-hold, you don't care if it sounds better after a certain point.

I have one wired set with buds and an inline mic that I use for work when I'm on the road just because I don't like the laptop mic and I don't want to pair my wireless earbuds to the laptop.

Normally wireless for anything on-the-go and wired for konsol/PC/laptop/etc stuff. But my buds are too andvanced and unrecognised by my new mp3 player and I don't feel like replacing that already, so no wireless for now.

Wired headphones, wired ethernet

I hate dealing with batteries, for both environmental reasons and also because I dont like replacing them.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I mean if you only get shitty sets, yeah.

Supposedly some people have perfectly fine mechanical hearing, but can't actually process subtle differences, which is a possibility for you if you really can't hear the difference.

Even low-mid range sets around the $100 mark are a massive departure from Staples crap. Though I've been getting these babies for a while, which have had a recent major price decrease and are, by far, the most bang for your buck that I've ever heard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08F4744RN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For music, I obviously use wired, with a dongle. I have Grados.
For calls/meetings, I still use wired, because (1) I don't want yet another thing to charge and (2) I can't justify the expense of high quality wireless when they are only going to last 2-3 years, regardless of usage.

It's the audio version of people saying they are fine playing games at 30 fps 720p. If you are, that's cool. But there is better out there.

I mean, I'm one of those people who doesn't care much about frame rates, but I am a lot more fussy about audio.

ai123 posted...

It's the audio version of people saying they are fine playing games at 30 fps 720p. If you are, that's cool. But there is better out there.

I mean, I'm one of those people who doesn't care much about frame rates, but I am a lot more fussy about audio.

obligatory
https://i.imgur.com/044oHEC.gif

I use wireless when walking, wired cans when practicing bass, and wired clip on ear when listening to music off-line.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Bluetooth cannot handle the amount of data that a wired connection can, but unless you're listening to lossless file formats, it won't really make a difference.

And good quality wireless headphones can still sound pretty great.

Wired headphones. They're cheaper and comfortable.

Earbuds don't stay in my ears and don't sound as good impo.

I'm forever wired headphones, don't like buds or wireless audio.

I use exclusively wired headphones. I hate earbuds and haven't used them in a decade or more too.

I love my AirPods and use them every day

so convenient and fit in my ears perfectly. And the little things like it stopping playing when I take one out and stuff like that. And being able to just talk into it and Siri doing the things I need. Theyre amazing.

Use wireless only when watching YouTube or playing music cos I get distracting audio delay on my headphones and I'm too cheap to get the best bluetooth codec headphones so I use wired when gaming on my phone. Youtube has an audio delay fix automatically so that's good but games don't.

Wireless for my phone. Wired earbuds to plug into my PS5 controller on the occasional time I play the PS5 in bed while my gf is sleeping.

tankboy posted...

For music, I obviously use wired, with a dongle. I have Grados.
For calls/meetings, I still use wired, because (1) I don't want yet another thing to charge and (2) I can't justify the expense of high quality wireless when they are only going to last 2-3 years, regardless of usage.

My man! What model/models do you have?

I don't get how people put up with bluetooth earbuds, they're so shit.

Sometimes they randomly don't connect. Or one side stops working. Or one side will lag behind the other and cause an echo. Or the audio quality degrades or gets choppy. Sometimes putting them in their case to reconnect solves it. Sometimes you have to pair them again, or go through some convoluted reset process on the earbuds.

Rexdragon125 posted...

I don't get how people put up with bluetooth earbuds, they're so shit.

Sometimes they randomly don't connect. Or one side stops working. Or one side will lag behind the other and cause an echo. Or the audio quality degrades or gets choppy. Sometimes putting them in their case to reconnect solves it. Sometimes you have to pair them again, or go through some convoluted reset process on the earbuds.

I have Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro that I got with my phone from a promo (as with the previous Galaxy Buds), in my years of having these variations of the Galaxy Buds, I haven't had a single one of those issues a single time. >_> That would definitely be annoying if I experienced that.

My only issue is the slight delay which strangely I don't seem to notice in videos such as FB, but I noticed it in this piano app I have. I don't use headphones in general though. I only use them at work to watch videos that people send me.

Rexdragon125 posted...

I don't get how people put up with bluetooth earbuds, they're so shit.

Sometimes they randomly don't connect. Or one side stops working. Or one side will lag behind the other and cause an echo. Or the audio quality degrades or gets choppy. Sometimes putting them in their case to reconnect solves it. Sometimes you have to pair them again, or go through some convoluted reset process on the earbuds.

Good points. I did get some good use out of them, but eventually they stopped working after walking in the rain.

Rexdragon125 posted...

I don't get how people put up with bluetooth earbuds, they're so shit.

Sometimes they randomly don't connect. Or one side stops working. Or one side will lag behind the other and cause an echo. Or the audio quality degrades or gets choppy. Sometimes putting them in their case to reconnect solves it. Sometimes you have to pair them again, or go through some convoluted reset process on the earbuds.

Sometimes one doesnt connect when I put it in, but I just take them out and put them in again.

none of the rest of those things have ever happened to me

I've never used wireless and have zero desire to try it.

I like Bluetooth speakers, but I'll never buy headphones that aren't wired.

Wireless since I listened to music while at work and technically not suppose to. The wireless BT I use are small and easy to hide under a hat I wear. I dont use both at the same time so if one dies, I just put the other in and let the other charge.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]



there are differences in total harmonic distortion and frequency response among headphones. like you can look up measurements for most headphones that aren't super obscure. eq can fix up most headphone's frequency response so not a huge deal unless it has major dips and peaks that are tough to get rid of (like sr009s has a huge high q dip at like 5.8 to 6.1 khz that is impossible to totally remove; that said it doesn't really conflict with actual music so not a huge deal but just an example i've heard recently ). There are many cheaper headphones that have low enough distortion to not be a problem even with massive boost in the bass under $500 range . usually they are planars.

i do agree that some headphones are priced too high tho like ZMFs (which can go up to a few thousand bucks depending on model). Amir from ASR measured a few ZMF headphones and they all have outrageously high THD compared to much cheaper stuff. I have the ZMF Verite and ZMF Verite Closeback version and they are the worse sounding headphones I've heard. Very muffled because their upper midrange is so recessed. At the time I wasn't into looking at headphone measurements so I relied solely on hype. ZMFs are hyped tf up because of craftmanship mainly (the owner handcrafts them out of various woods). Also for whatever reason people on popular audiophile forums will hype them tf up as having the best "timbre" ever which I suspect they do so that their 2nd hand price doesn't crash (might not be reality but whatever). I remember I was told I had terrible taste because I preferred a Sennheiser hd800s and hd600 over the zmf verite and its closeback counterpart. Idk what kind of drugs these people are on for thinking the ZMFs sound good. ughh

I don't need more rechargeable limited lifespan bullshit in my life, so wired. Had the same pair for almost 20 years now and they still work perfectly.

Also never got tangled up in them or then on anything, like y'all never heard of cord ties or something.

Yes. Mostly because I dont want to deal with more devices that need charging

I like when Im listening to a podcast in one room on my phones speaker and then put my AirPods in from another room and it just starts playing on there

Wired headset for PC gaming

I don't use any earbuds or headphones.

Can confirm that high end headphones make a big difference. Gotta make sure your headphones amp has the impedance to drive them too. Your phone or generic PC audio probably doesn't.

MartavisBryant posted...

My man! What model/models do you have?

SR-125 and SR-225e. I'm looking at SR-325x, but I'm not sure I can justify it right now. My phones have always been able to drive them without an amp. I first got into the open back design when I worked in a cube and needed something I could wear all day and that let in some ambient noise (desk phone, people stopping by). Now it's good when I'm at home and need to hear my 5yo calling for me. Not an appropriate choice for travel or activity, though.

I suppose I should mention that I do use a wireless headset connected to my PC for Teams/Zoom meetings: A Yealink that uses DECT (like a cordless landline phone), not Bluetooth, which means very long range and minimal interference, so I can do laundry and whatnot while working. From what I gather, it's an uncommon solution.

Lol another pair of shit earbuds.

The audio had randomly gone choppy on my tablet, then they just cut out, so I went to remove the pairing. It got stuck disconnecting, so I restart the tablet. It sat there restarting for like 5 minutes until my tablet BSOD, a new Surface Pro 9. Into the trash they go.

When I'm doing something where the wire could get in the way or I want to be a little more inconspicuous about it, I'll use wireless earbuds.

Any other time I use actual headphones, they sound better and are more comfortable, especially if I'm going to be wearing them for a while.