• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    24 hours ago

    You know what’s easier than a cable? No cable.

    I’ll give you sound quality, but the whole reason that wireless earbuds took off is the hassle of wires.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      And also no latency. Even expensive Bluetooth headphones and earbuds have crap latency. The systems that don’t are either proprietary and not widely supported (e.g. aptX) or expensive 'phones-and-dongle arrangements that must always travel in a pair and still don’t compete on latency with a pair of dollar store earbuds.

      • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Unless you’re using them for gaming or some other interactive medium, latency doesn’t really matter though. For music, latency is irrelevant and for video, your device will take care of syncing the audio and video playback so it’s a non issue. Audio quality is an entirely different matter of course.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Your video player “can” account for latency if you configure it correctly which I imagine the majority of people don’t do, and simply put up with it. Ditto with your music playback always lagging 1-2 seconds behind your control inputs. I have never used a media player on any platform that automatically figured out audio latency. Maybe the iDevices do if you pair them with Airpods, I don’t know; I don’t own anything Apple and I never will.

          It also matters for music production, and makes life a lot more pleasant for audio/video editing. Plus, latency is just annoying in any setting.

          • uniquethrowagay@feddit.org
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            7 hours ago

            If you have 1-2 seconds of audio delay with bluetooth, something is wrong. SBC bluetooth audio has like 200ms max.

            Which is noticable if you make an effort, but for non-interactive media, it’s negligible imo.

          • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            There’s nothing to configure with modern android and Windows devices, it just works from my experience. Watching a video on YouTube or on the native media players at least you get a fraction of a second where it’s out of sync and then it pauses the video for whatever time necessary to get back in sync, and no issues from there on out.

            The only instances where I notice it doesn’t work are games and video editing software, but yeah, those are just not use cases where wireless audio is appropriate

          • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Your video player “can” account for latency if you configure it correctly which I imagine the majority of people don’t do.

            Windows and Android do this automatically out of the box, don’t know about other platforms.

            Ditto with your music playback always lagging 1-2 seconds behind your control inputs.

            Since music isn’t an interactive medium, this doesn’t really matter much (also the latency is more like 100 to 500 ms depending on a variety of factors)

            It also matters for music production, and makes life a lot more pleasant for audio/video editing

            Well of course, if you’re doing that A) this is not an application for wireless audio solutions so…uh…duh and B) you’re probably not on a phone if you take video or music production seriously 😅

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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            18 hours ago

            Yes indeed, Apple’s had acceptable latency (e.g. for YouTube) since no later than 2017.

            I’ve only thought about it when specifically wondering how they pulled it off (and I assumed the phone did something slightly fancy to add a delay on the visual side)

            Glad you’ve never paid their tax in any case!

            • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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              9 hours ago

              I don’t know about iPhone, but I’ve notice a cool trick that my Android uses is, immediately upon unpausing a video, it will play and jump the video to the point it will need to be to sync the audio, so while you may skip back a few frames initially, you do receive immediate visual feedback rather than seeing a frozen frame while waiting for the audio delay.

      • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de
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        18 hours ago

        not widely supported (e.g. aptX)

        I can find over 600 aptX capable headphones as well as over 850 phones, also any laptop I ever had supported it (Linux though, so probably not always “official” lol).

        Low latency is a thing, you can get this as low as ~30-50ms either through aptX LL / Adaptive, whatever the manufacturer apps do or by manually meddling with the settings for SBC. Will get rather unstable though since you effectively get rid of the buffer. Really depends on your usecase what you prefer. Personally I love having ANC headphones that support bluetooth but also got a headphone jack in cases where I sit in trains, buses or planes for hours and want to play some games or listen to music with a DAC.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          17 hours ago

          Almost always Bluetooth for me.

          Might plug into the car to get higher quality audio. Will use a cable with a mic at home, but even then I might use AirPods for listening and only use the cable to speak into.

          It stands to reason there can’t be that many audiophiles who could tell the difference between Bluetooth and aux while listening to their little Spotify playlists, but oh boy-

          So many more people can tell when you’re speaking over spanking-new $200 AirPods versus the old dinky pair of stock EarPods from the bottom of the junk drawer. Cable reins supreme, no competition. (and with the best dictation software, simply whispering into the hardwired mic is sufficient for ~95(+)% accuracy)

    • hOrni@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      I finally went wireless a week ago. I realized their advantage when the cable on my headphones broke for a millionth time.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        I don’t remember what did it for me, I switched a while ago. But, I do clearly remember one time when I had the kind of moulded earphones that go really deep in your ear, and I caught the cable on something, and they got yanked out of my ears. That was pretty painful.

    • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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      23 hours ago

      I feel like I’d forget to charge them. Or drop them in a public place and not want to put them in my ears because I’m a germaphobe. I know someone who dropped theirs in a toilet.

      • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I feel like I’d forget to charge them

        I thought that to but turned out to be a non-issue. Since most earbuds come in a case that holds multiple full charges for the earbuds themselves, and the case begins to complain about low battery early enough, even if I forget the first one or two times I notice the low battery state I’ve so far never run into a situation where I wanted to use them as had no charge left

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        Yeah, it’s a risk. But, there’s also a risk of getting your wired earbuds cord caught on something. I’ve had that happen and it yanked the phone off the table and sent it crashing to the floor. I’ve also had the buds get yanked out of my ears multiple times.

        If I lived somewhere where winters were mild, I might still use wired headphones. When you only have to worry about a t-shirt or something managing the cord isn’t too bad. But, when you have to manage a hat, scarf, coat, etc. there are just too many things to get in the way of the cord.

        • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          We’d love to, but manufacturers keep trying to force them down our throats. And when we express a different prererence or use case a bunch of trolls feel the need to pop out of the woodwork and tell us that no, we’re actually wrong and our use cases don’t actually exist.

          How about you all don’t worry about what headphones other people are using?

          • ...m...@ttrpg.network
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            14 hours ago

            We’d love to, but manufacturers keep trying to force them down our throats.

            …that’s not where they’re supposed to go…

          • LandedGentry@lemmy.zip
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            23 hours ago

            I’m not? They’re listing all the reasons they don’t want them, so I’m saying the answer is easy. I personally prefer wire headphones, butI do have Bluetooth ones because they have their use case. I don’t understand why everyone’s so purist in the first place. They’re all tools, use what you need for the job

    • spicehoarder@lemm.ee
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      21 hours ago

      You really think that’s a dunk? “Wireless” just means you plug it in when not in use. There’s nothing hard about plugging in a 3.5mm audio jack. I’ve never been sufficiently convinced to actually use wireless headphones. They seem like more of a hassle for a worse listing experience.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        Wireless means you plug it in occasionally, maybe once a week.

        If you don’t value the convenience of wireless headphones, that’s great for you. For a lot of people, the cable is a real pain in the ass. It gets tangled up when it’s off. It gets caught up on things when it’s on, etc.

        • i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          15 hours ago

          I definitely have to give it to wireless sets, they are really convenient. I’m clumsy and it’s nice not having to be aware of the cable. (The sudden yank out of my ears… Aaaaaaargh.)

          But I’m also forgetful (I don’t always remember to charge it…) and I have a low tolerance for connection problems so I do prefer wired in some scenarios.

          I don’t get some people’s obsession with hating on wireless earbuds and headsets.

        • jecxjo@midwest.social
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          15 hours ago

          i switched when phones dropped the jack but just recently went USB to 3.5mm. Sadly both are crap.

          Honestly I’m going to look into a media device again.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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          17 hours ago

          Mm & also how about respecting the electronics and (maybe a little bit obsessive-compulsively) wrapping the entire cord up and zipping it into a case… every single time

          (Skill or rather personal policy issue, ya, that one might be on me)

          But don’t even have to put my head against the phone for a quick call when a single earbud is right in my pocket ready to be slipped out and stuck back in, blind ‘n’ fast

    • superkret@feddit.org
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      23 hours ago

      The reason wireless earbuds took off is that phones with headphone jacks stopped getting made.
      Consumers didn’t prefer wireless earbuds. They preferred thinner and more water-resistant phones.

      • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I personally switched to wireless back when my phone still had a headphone jack. It’s just the better overall experience for me, and I suspect that I’m not alone in that. I’m going to continue arguing for manufacturers to keep including a headphone jack, but it’s not because I prefer wired headphones personally.

      • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Lol, people downvoting you like they weren’t manipulated into spending 10x as much for a product that can’t be repaired, all in the name of profit.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      21 hours ago

      You know what’s easier than no cable? Not losing your ear buds

      Haven’t been able to use ear buds outside of the house ever since they got rid of the jack

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        I’ve never lost one in at least a decade of using them. But, I don’t use the kind that just balance on the edge of your ear.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            20 hours ago

            Why are you so deep in your own bubble that you don’t believe that someone could simply prefer wireless? If that’s the case, you should get out more, meet more people, expand your horizons.

    • Blakdragon@lemmy.ca
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      21 hours ago

      For me personally, I got wireless earbuds because they removed all the damn phone jacks and I didn’t have a choice.