I Bought a Pair of Wireless Earbuds for 25 Bucks and Was Blown Away

One problem here is that the author is basically comparing these to the awful headphones that Apple throws in the box.[1] Details on overall audio performance against other products in this blog post and the attached full review are quite sparse for being an audio review, except how they sound great for $25.

For example, the author said that they had no complaints from people he called about audio quality. Did the author ask though? Did the author compare with the phone microphone or other products? We don’t know.

I’m sure it’s true that these put out decent audio, and I’m sure for many people $25 is the maximum budget. But if I have up to $50 or $100 to spend, should I still buy these? If I use headphones for hours per day, should $25 really be my maximum budget?

I’ve owned headphones very much like this in the past. For example, Panasonic makes an astonishingly impressive pair of wired earbuds that only cost about $9.

There’s nothing wrong with them, and they’re often better than an un-researched/convenience store alternative at a similar price, but as soon as you try something pricey you realize what you’re missing, as is often the case with audio: differences in performance are often quite relative. Your ears can quite easily get used to and even enjoy a product that performs relatively badly.

[1] To give you an idea of how bad EarPods are, consider the fact that Apple won’t even give you a fast charging brick in the box unless you spend $1000 on a Pro-branded phone. Those EarPods probably cost single-digit pennies to manufacture.

That’s the real flaw with this review: there’s a fallacy in even attaching a $20 price tag to the EarPods, because nobody in their right mind intentionally purchases them. They’ve got a drawer full of them from every iPhone they’ve bought. So I guess what we really need to know is whether these can compete against a free product: because sometimes once you pull out your wallet the best choice isn’t to buy the cheapest possible product.

Is there language to differentiate between wireless earbuds connected by a cable and those that have no cable?

I have found that I hear everything the cable rubs against quite loudly, and it gets quite annoying. This is particularly so during the half of the year one wears extra clothes to stay warm - hats, scarfs, jackets.