I hate earbuds, wired or otherwise. And making them wireless just seems like more trouble than it’s worth.
Advantages: Well, Apple did away with the headphone jack, so you don’t need an adapter to make the wireless ones work. (Not an issue for me. Not only do I generally avoid Apple products, but I insist on getting a phone that has a headphone jack.) And I guess you don’t have the wire potentially getting in the way or getting snagged on anything? Not a problem I’ve ever really had, honestly.
Disadvantages: You’ve got these tiny things that are really easy to drop or lose, and suddenly there’s no wire attached to them, so they’re extra easy to lose. Also, they need to be charged to work. And they depend on a Bluetooth connection. Bluetooth is better than it used to be, but it’s still more prone to signal interference and static than a wire.
Me, I use a cheap pair of earclip headphones. They clip gently over your ears instead of squishing painfully into your ear canals. They’re far less likely to damage your hearing by blasting too much volume directly into that little enclosed space. They’re still lightweight and portable. No headband required. And there’s a little bead where the main wire splits into the two wires that go to the left and right ear speakers. On that bead? A microphone, which is handy if you want to make a phone call without unplugging your headphones. There’s also a volume slider so you can directly adjust the headphone volume without adjusting your phone. And you can plug the jack into other things. Currently, I have it plugged into my Chromebook so I can watch shows without waking the rest of the family. There are similar headsets with in-line controls that can interact with the phone itself, like a button to pick up or hang up a phone call. Selection is thinner than it was a few years ago, before they started phasing out headphone jacks, but there are some good options. And these are just miles better for me than earbuds, wired or wireless.
If you really want to go wireless, they make wireless ear clip headphones, too. Still more comfortable than earbuds will ever be, and harder to lose. With space for built-in controls.
$200 is pretty cheap compared to the higher end headphones/ear buds.
But I guess if you don’t really care about wireless ear buds and you aren’t picky about how they sound and the quality, go buy a set of $20 wired off brand ear buds that will probably last you a year, maybe more, and you replace them with another $20 pair.
I have a pair of $500 wireless Bose headphones I use daily for work that have built in active noise cancellation that I use, and because I work from home and have a 5 year old, a three year old and an 8 month old, it’s a must. They are also super comfortable.
Then I have a pair of $150 wireless Galaxy Buds that I use mowing and on the go, I’ve had them for 3+ years, and they are still fantastic.
But I mean, if you are only going to spend the cash because others do, then don’t bother. I bought the Bose headphones because it was a must for my sanity and to work from home and be able to focus. The galaxy buds were bought to replace headphones I had had for over 8 years.
I’ve had Jabra Elite 65t earbuds for a couple years now and overall I’ve been happy with them. They’re currently in the $70 USD range on Amazon.
Not the most amazing sound quality I’ve ever had, but ear buds aren’t studio headphones so I don’t complain. Not truly noise cancelling apparently, but good enough for noisy environments.
There’s functions I don’t use, like the ability to activate smart devices like Alexa and Google. There’s also movement tracking capabilities for exercise. I personally wouldn’t use these for exercise because my left ear is weirdly shaped and the earbud doesn’t fit as snugly in that ear. I like being able to pause media by removing one bud from my ear.
I use them daily. There’s a 5 hour battery life and a recharging case that can charge the buds twice before it needs to be recharged. They’ve been dropped in a variety of substances and they still work. I’ve even washed them a couple times and they’re still not dead.
Connecting via Bluetooth is what it is. I honestly couldn’t tell you if the very occasional problems I have with pairing are a problem with the buds or with the Pixel phones I’ve used with it (Pixel 2 and Pixel 6a). I haven’t tracked it down because it’s just not an issue that comes up often enough to be worth the headache. Turning it off and back on again does the trick.
Overall, I like wireless earbuds because every single pair of wired earbuds I’ve owned died after I destroyed the wire. They get shoved into pockets and bags and that’s hard on cables. My backpack is where hardware goes to die. I haven’t killed these after 2 years which is longer than the wired earbuds I’ve owned which generally lasted less than a year.
It doesn’t matter how many gooey silicone caps or squishable foam caps or whatever come with a pair. They never, ever fit my ears properly and the left one ends up in close quarters with a piercing that makes extended wear pretty impossible.
Over-the-ear is fine and the frequency response some of them provide is spectacular… but I also don’t necessarily want to shut out the world all of the time.
Praise be to bone conductive headphones. I love them. They have their own trade-offs but, at least for my needs and scenario, they hit all the marks. The pair I use aren’t made by the manufacturer anymore (Shokz) but I haven’t moved up to one of their newer models because the current pair is still going strong.
Aside from the lack of a cord, so it doesn’t matter if phone makers wanna ditch the ⅛" jack, I can listen to whatever and still hear everything else around me. Cow-orker arrives to the desk unannounced and barrels right into a question? No issues, and no awkward fumbling and asking for a moment to turn things down or shut things off; I can roll right into the conversation and still have music.
The dealbreaker for some will be the fidelity. These are not sit-and-hear-the-nuance headphones (even then, the representation is still really good). If I want to experience the music, I’ll use proper speakers; if I’m on a bus or running errands or at the aforementioned work, all’s good.
But we’re talking buds. Buds can go ¢ȟ1ⓣ in their shoe.
I recently got $60 noise-cancelling Skullcandy earbuds from Walmart and they’re pretty much perfect for me. Sound quality is fine and so is noise cancelling, so they’re perfect for work. They also last for a lot longer than my work hours and the case only has to be charged once a week. Probably less often, but I want to keep it topped up.
I bought a cheapie pair of ear buds from the supermarket, and honestly, they’ve held up a lot better than some high end ear buds I’ve bought with decent sound quality to boot.
The last few years I stuck with using wired ear buds (I like the Marley brand as they don’t tangle as much) but with the lack of the 3.5 jack on most phones now, took a chance on a set of wireless.
I held off longer than I should have as I am deathly afraid of how easy it would be to lose one if it popped out at a bad time (curse the layout of my ears) or concerned about forgetting to charge them, but a few months back at my local Best Buy My wife was buying a pair of skullcandy buds as she had a coupon from some online ting they did, and I joked about grabbing a pair of basic Raycon’s just due to the number of Youtubers who had pushed them. We had a laugh, but they were a good deal anyways so ended up with them anyways.
Is the sound quality the best, heck no, but I did find them to be surprising better than expected, and so far my fear of losing one of them has no come to pass. So I’ll stick with them for now.
I also get a lot of spam/ads for Gravastar buds, I do like the look, and I’ve heard good feedback, so should I need a new pair, I might look at them.
It’s funny how audiophiles spend so much money thinking it will bring them great quality. I went to school for audio engineering and, although I am not one any longer and haven’t been for a long time, I can tell you that we never mixed music thinking of audiophiles. Our instructors would tell us to do things like take a mix and play it in your car while driving and see if you still like it (assuming you didn’t have a souped-up audio system in your car obviously).
You mix so that it will sound at least decent on the crappiest hardware, not so that it will sound amazing on the most expensive. Or at least that’s how I was taught to do it.
If you’re spending $700 on high-end earbuds, you’re doing it wrong.
I have friends that have dropped what I feel is ridiculous amounts on headsets, and while I do hear a difference, it’s nothing mind blowing enough to have ever made me think it was something I had to drop coin for.
Even one of my best friends who works at a music shop (Guitar Center-ish place) and he rolls his eyes when he sees most people with “high-end” things, as many most likely won’t pick up on much of a difference.
There have been blind tests where audiophiles can’t tell the difference between high end and low end gear. It’s mostly psychological. There are minor differences, but that’s about it. But I think more importantly, it misses the forest for the trees. Yes, it might be clearer or higher in fidelity, but that is not how the music is meant to be heard. That’s not how the people actually producing the audio expect it to be heard. Most of the time anyway.
One of the things I’ve appreciated with brands like Sennheiser (which some may dismiss as a pricey audiophile nonsense brand) is the comfort factor on my over-large head.
Most of them have sounded good too (The HD515 being a single exception - ironically, the most comfortable cans I’ve owned of them all).
Comfort is a whole other issue. If you have to spend more for comfort, that makes a lot of sense. It’s the people who spend a huge amount expecting the higher fidelity audio to make a difference in their lives that I think are silly.
