Hacker News Reader

Comment by asldihgiyug | Hacker News Reader

What do these Apple headphones do that others don't? Perhaps maybe other than ecosystem lock?

For me, the ability to switch between audio on all my devices instantly. Listening on my mac, answer a call on my iPhone automatically. I realize this is a niche use case, but would be really nice for me.

The ability to just take them off and have them pause is icing on the cake as well.

If other headphones have these features, I'm open to them.

My Jabra elites do both those things (multiple devices with instant switch on calls & auto pause with on-ear detection), and are much cheaper. The only thing they don't have is the adaptive EQ but the jury's still out on how much of that is just a marketing gimmick.

I have a Jabra elite headphones and you're either overselling it by a lot or only switch between 2 devices. They're garbage compared to my Airpods and their app is absolutely terrible. It wouldn't even let me connect to Zoom without upgrading the firmware on them which failed every time. Without the upgrade, it sounded like a crappy phone call whenever I'd get a Zoom call. After the upgrade, it sounds like a slightly less crappy phone call.

Yeah, that's my issue. I have a pair of Anker in-ears (Liberty Pro 2) for working out and they're great for that. When it comes to being at my desk during work, seamless switching is what I need.

No I'm not, your experience is not universal. I use them consistently between my phone and laptop without issue. I've never really needed to connect headphones to more than 2 devices.

If you're using a macbook you need to ensure you're using the AAC codec, for some reason macOS makes SBC as the default codec for lots of devices and you've to force it to use the non-garbage codec.

How can you say "No, I'm not" when I've explicitly made the point that the Jabra headset can only have 2 active connections. Just because you've never needed to connect more than 2 devices doesn't mean that this isn't an important distinction for me or others. I literally said "you're either overselling this or only using 2 devices".

No I'm not (overselling). It's really that easy to understand my comment, not everything is a literal logical response.

So you don't understand that words have meaning and that's why "or" was in there. Got it.

I can’t help but think you’re subtracting points for needing to upgrade firmware (not sure I would) and the negative experience you had doing so. Also when you say “headset” I think we may be comparing different models.

I’ve never had a firmware upgrade fail on my set of Jabra Elite 75t’s yet, and I think I’ve done three, maybe four since I got them.

I’ve never had to use or been tempted to use an app for them on the PC, only using the one on my iPhone. They work great, sound quality seems fine but not fantastic - maybe AirPods are better, but I wouldn’t know. One nice thing is the EQ in the Jabra app - it’s not “adaptive” like AirPods, but I consider manual EQ a better feature if it’s an either/or decision. Have presets for music and meetings that I rarely mess with unless on long meeting or longer music listening session. I can see how the adaptive would save you from even thinking about it so I can see why some people would prefer it.

The one thing I find annoying about the Jabra set is that if I take the left ear out to talk to someone, I may have to put both back in case and out again to get them both back online. I hear about similar problems with AirPods though.

I definitely am. The headphones didn't work out of the box on several devices, even just via Bluetooth. It sounded like an old-timey telephone. And that's exactly where I think Apple has the advantage. My overall experience with Airpods was so much better and continues to be better and more seamless. The Jabra headphones are fine but I don't even think they're worth what I paid for them and that wasn't as much as the new Airpods headphones.

> It sounded like an old-timey telephone.

Again check the codec mac is using for this. I've had no issues with them, you either had a defective device or Mac is forcing the SBC codec. On windows there's a headset audio device for every bluetooth device that sounds garbage too (regardless of what the device actually is).

There's no way to set the codec on the Mac unless the individual software has an option for it. Considering that no other devices have this issue and it was improved with a firmware update, I'm going to say it wasn't an issue with the Mac at all.

Good to know! However, I already have a pair of wireless earbuds for working out. I'm in the market for a pair of over-ear headphones with these feature.

If the tech exists for in-ears though, hopefully it will/does exist in over-ear.

Sure they can do that if you can upgrade to Big Sur without bricking your MacBook

I guess I'm lucky then. We upgraded all my Macs at home and all the Macs at the office to Big Sur without bricking any of them.

Or maybe you're just being contrarian...

It’s a known issue with older MBPs

They signal you have enough disposable income to buy them. It's like a Rolex you wear on your head.

Edit: I'm not being facetious, this is an excellent move for Apple to make as it continues to pursue dominance in the luxury tech-wearables market.

Not sure why you are being downvoted. This is obviously a real dynamic. Expensive tech gear is somewhat like an entry level luxury vehicle for the masses. You’re not seriously rich enough for a S-Class Benz, but you could live that aspiration via older model CLA.

So yeah, not quite rich enough to buy a house in major cities, but hey, you can certainly splurge on this kind of stuff.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com