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Comment by mingus88 | Hacker News Reader

Wired is absolutely superior but the fact is most people don’t care. There is an entire generation of people that grew up ripping audio from YouTube and could not care less about lossless or latency issues with wired headphones.

The industry realized this and honestly for most people a water resistant phone is worth losing the 1/8” jack and they win with fewer components and thinner phones

The Apple dongle actually measures very well. I’m using one right now for my wired headphones. As someone who has spent too much money on headphones and accessories I don’t miss OTG cables and external DAC/Amps and feel the OEM Apple equipment is great for $10

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> The industry realized this and honestly for most people a water resistant phone is worth losing the 1/8” jack and they win with fewer components and thinner phones

This would make sense if people didn't turn around and spend more than is saved on wireless headphones. I don't understand what people see in airpods (they work sufficiently but they're bleached and molded plastic; vomit, way too expensive for any possible use-case), but they're enormously successful and more than validated the removal of the jack. By like multiple orders of magnitude.

Anyway, I've definitely had waterproof phones with a headphone jack. I'm guessing they removed it just to save on space. I wish I gave a shit about the shape of the phone, but the primary difference is I view my phone as more of a toy than a tool.

>I don't understand what people see in airpods (they work sufficiently but they're bleached and molded plastic; vomit, way too expensive for any possible use-case)

"They work sufficiently" is already a high bar given experiences people had with earlier wireless headphones. They were also the very first reliable detached (split ear) headphones. And they added excellent ANC (at least in the Pro version).

As for being "bleached and molded plastic" what else would they be? Wood? Metal and genuine leather?

I can't say I claim to have heard of ANC before, but the rest of these reasons to purchase apple headphones are true of the $20 chinese knockoffs I bought on amazon. And they come in a cute orange/salmon color rather than blanched.

The only perceptual difference is that apple special-cases airpod management to ease switching of devices. They trash their own product by making such consumer-hostile ux obvious.

Have you ever tried to play basketball in the gym or go running with a wire? AirPods are a total game changer for any athletic scenario.

I run with wired headphones. I also don't need to chase after them when they fall out of my ears.

If you're happy with that then great! That's wonderful.

But for me there's just no going back - it's that big of a difference. I'll happily pay any price to have a wire-free experience. It's just magical, especially as someone who lives in a city and walks a lot / takes the subway / plays sports / spends time in the gym / etc.

>for most people a water resistant phone is worth losing the 1/8” jack

fun fact: the 1/8th jack was never an issue with making a phone water resistant. It doesn't need to expose the internals any more than USB-C does (actually, even less).

It’s another component that requires water resistant components. Obviously you can make it water resistant, but it comes at an additional cost. More importantly though, the 3.5mm jack is physically quite large inside the phone. It’s much larger than a USB-C jack, for instance. Easily 2-3x the size internally.

Yea but this only matters if you're considering fatness as a factor. This factor disappeared long before the headphone jack did. I have never in my life heard "i won't use that phone cuz it's too fat". Apple just irrationally hates wires. God forbid someone ask for a button!

No, I'm considering footprint as well. The interior volume of a 3.5mm jack is substanial compared to the total volume of a phone.

Wired is absolutely inferior if you move at all and the cable hits something or the wind hits the cable etc.

I suggest not wiring with tissue paper if this is a serious issue for you.

Anyway, you can simply not run into stuff with a wire. There's nothing you can do about bluetooth glitching out randomly for five seconds. Not to mention playing the "what device is playing into my headphones" game. Wireless is for people who don't care.

>Anyway, you can simply not run into stuff with a wire. There's nothing you can do about bluetooth glitching out randomly for five seconds.

Sure you can. Buy a quality headphone and transmitter device. Never had a BT issue with several airpod models (v1, v2, pro) and an iPhone for 7+ years. And I'm pretty sure most other brands have solved this by now too.

How do you recommend vetting brands? This is simply not a problem wired technology ever had. I can't imagine ever trusting a brand to get things right without my fixing their mistakes.

>How do you recommend vetting brands?

Just try what most buy and report positive experience with. Do a test drive and return if not satisfied. Try a friend's device.

It's not rocket science.

> This is simply not a problem wired technology ever had.

I had plenty of wired sets where you had to hold the cable just so in order to get audio to play through. Happened a ton with those cheap crappy skullcandy earbuds, but would also eventually happen with the higher quality stuff too.

I've tried 100 euro wired IEMs that had that issue. The wire will inevitably hit something (your own clothing) as you move through the city or you will hear the wind vibrating the cable.

Idk if you just became accustomed to it or what but it was my biggest pet peeve with wired headphones

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