Bose is bringing back wired earbuds as teens ditch Bluetooth

[Mystique]

If I had to have wired again, the cord needs to be replaceable. All my wired headphones ended their life with broken cables.

I can't argue with that. There is no reason why wires cannot be at the very least improved to a higher quality similar to wired mice.

Replaceable wires would be interesting although they'd have to come up with some sort of port/connector that could be adopted as a standard. The best thing I could think of would be some sort of magnetic connector that way wire snags could also cause less damage and also allow for easy wire replacement and or third party cables.

 

[Rudyduu]

Just more proof that gen alpha are complete morons.

How can you possibly just an entire generation on a portion of them wanting to use wired headphones? Do you make the same judgement on people who prefer a different colour than you do, too? It's just a preference.

 

[Rudyduu]

Such trials and tribulations the youth of today must face. It's shameful

What are you talking about? No one is making a big deal about any of this except you.

 

[Rudyduu]

The ones that say America is unfair and I can't afford to live because I only earn X
and have $xx,xxx dollars in debt because I have 300 streaming subscriptions, eat
door dash 10 times a week and on and on. LOL

You can't possibly know enough teens to make a judgement about all of them. How can a teen who doesn't have a job be in debt? What service or company is giving lines of credit to someone who's unemployed?

 

[opckieran]

You can't possibly know enough teens to make a judgement about all of them. How can a teen who doesn't have a job be in debt? What service or company is giving lines of credit to someone who's unemployed?

You just described student loans...

 

[AnilD]

Every generation eventually discovers that sometimes the best wireless connection is a wire.

 

[Anton Longshot]

I have really great open wired ear headphones with 3.5mm jack->Lightning.
Last week I upgraded my trusty SE to iPhone 17 and also changed to 3.5mm jack->USB C - same wonderful experience.
But as always, some prefer their BT or other headsets. Good for them and I hope they enjoy.

 

[RudyBob]

What are you talking about? No one is making a big deal about any of this except you.

I can tell you are Vulcan. Jokes are not within your realm.

 

[Gezzer]

You are aware that wireless earbuds and IEMs have always been a thing, they never went anywhere. The IEM enthusiast space, which is where the wired in ears enthusiast lives, actually went into a boom period with the amount of good, cheap, Chi-Fi sets that have flooded the market. Just becaure Apple stopped shipping $5 earbuds doesn’t mean wired audio died. The Bose are again, expensive crap. They’re $99 which are very close to the AirPods 5 which are just better and are in the same range as the Aria 2 and ie 200 which I can gurantee will decimate these in audio quality. So no they are not really a choice as they are not as good as the benchmark wireless option or the comparative price wireless models.

I'm one of those people that use wired buds/phones exclusively. Why? You only have to do a comparison test to see why. I've had one set of BT earbuds and I hated them. They weren't cheap but sounded like they were. Then again I've spent anywhere from 600CN for a pair of Shure 535s and 150CN for my current favorites 1More Quads (best bang for the buck IMHO). BT simply doesn't have the bandwidth to feed the needs of a top tier bud IMHO.

 

[LordVile95]

I'm one of those people that use wired buds/phones exclusively. Why? You only have to do a comparison test to see why. I've had one set of BT earbuds and I hated them. They weren't cheap but sounded like they were. Then again I've spent anywhere from 600CN for a pair of Shure 535s and 150CN for my current favorites 1More Quads (best bang for the buck IMHO). BT simply doesn't have the bandwidth to feed the needs of a top tier bud IMHO.

Did I ever say they were top tier? I said they were better than these. But when you’re paying over double the price of even the AirPods Pro then they should sound better. Bluetooth buds are good for what they are and provide a convenient and good enough sound signature for the cost. Bose have released buds that will not be up to the standard of the base AirPods which are in the same price bracket but ones that will lose in audio quality to IEMs of the same price tier or below. These aren’t beating 7Hz or Moondrops in the $50-100 Bracket the same way that the AirPods Pro will not get near the blessing 3 which are closer to its price point.

 

[RaXelliX]

I like the fact that wired earphones don't require you to risk breaking them when you gotta change that battery.

I haven't used wired headphones for more than a decade so excuse my denseness, but why do wired headphones have a battery instead of taking the power trough the cord?

I would assume being lighter and simpler (cheaper too) would be a major win, bit if a wired headphone has a battery that needs charging then in my eyes it defeats one of the benefits of owing a wire in the first place.

Also due to legislation (at least in the EU) things are slowly changing. First wireless earbuds already come with user replaceable batteries instead of being glued in (Sennheiser Momentum 5 I think it was).

You mean like how Chrysler group discontinued the Dodge charger EV and RAM EV and put the hemi V8 back in both?

Isn't that related to US getting rid of all EV tax breaks etc?

Bluetooth is so underwhelming and wildly overpriced

How is it overpriced? You can find plenty of overpriced wired options too.
BT by itself is not making thing way more expensive. It's the included battery etc that increases BOM costs.

The only real benefit is that it is wireless but beyond that it has a battery that will inevitably fail

Once batteries become user replaceable again this will alleviate the issue.

has latency

Only matters for smartphone gamers

proprietary codecs with varying degrees of quality,

Yes I agree that it's a mess. The default SBC everyone is using is crap and the better options are too fragmented.

limited battery life/runtime (the lower the latency and higher bitrates often means lower runtime/battery life and distances),

That's inevitable, You cant fight against laws of physics. Only newer more efficient codecs can improve this.

security

BT is strictly short range. I think the security aspect is exaggerated. If you have someone standing in your BT range with a snooping device then you have much bigger concerns than about what they're over hearing over the BT compared to what they could do to you physically by being so close. I would put it in the same category as security attacks requiring physical access to the device in question.

The set standard for Bluetooth in terms of quality is far too low and you are just asking for latency and low bitrate.

I agree on that. Too much bottom of the barrel crap on the market that has tainted the whole Bluetooth name for years.

BT simply doesn't have the bandwidth to feed the needs of a top tier bud IMHO.

Im not an audiophile, but based on what I know the type of bud has no effect on bandwidth it needs to sound good. Bandwidth required is determined by the bit rate of music you're listening and the coded used. Obviously BT does not have the bandwidth to fully transmit FLAC or high quality CD audio (1411kbps I believe), but at it's max 990kbps I doubt most people will be able to distinguish between 990kbps and a 1411kbps anyway.