Buds can be used without an app, but they really should open source it if they really care about long term sustainability.
Imo its fine if they open source it when they decide to end support. The fact that app has a pristine privacy record is good enough
Is it? Closed source means it’s probably listening and recording and selling
You can just see which DNS calls it’s doing with any DNS overwriter.
Nah it’s encrypted
You don’t know what DNS is, do you?
Basically your device (for example your phone) needs to know the ip adress of any service it wants to connect to. As you may know these services usually use addresses like Lemmy.org or google.com or whatever.
To know what IP adres is behind these addresses, you device needs to ask a dns server, in a local network (like your own WiFi) this is usually your router, but you can set it to any arbitrary device you want. This way you can see what addresses are being asked for by your device.
So if the app want to send data to some server, it usually needs to resolve the adress first. And you can see that.
Data 'n stealing
I mean if you’re using something like Firebase on Android, the network calls get bundled with Google Play Services and you have no idea what that’s sending up
But if you have a DNS intercepter/redirect like RethinkDNS or DDG, it should show which queries are coming from which profile
I’m a fan of open source, but c’mon. There are reasons not yet to open source a product.
They should also have a wired option. But I guess that they removed the headphone jack from their latest phone for a reason.
I’d much prefer a 3.5mm jack
Every time it comes up I must lament the switch to screens too tall to watch content, the decision to remove wired 3.5mm jacks in order to drive sales of wireless headphones, the switch to increasingly fewer physical buttons. No more IR blaster.
I think you’re just finding reasons to nitpick. I agree with the jack but the fuck you need and IR blaster for?
cause it’s cool and I like it, which should be reason enough. more practically it works for cases when you lose your remote, maybe cases where you want to change the channel on some TV in a pub somewhere, shit like that. it’s fun.
IR blasters were great!
“Shit, where’s the remote? Oh well, I’ll just use my phone.”
If you lose a remote you also lose a phone easily
Good thing there’s find my phone
It is much easier to lose the remote since you only use it when using the TV (or other devices that have remotes). Where as you are much much more likely to be doing stuff on your phone actively. Also you can use various methods for locating your phone. Most remotes on the other hand don’t come with the same features for finding them. I am only personally aware of Roku’s remotes having the option to press a physical button on the main box, or via the Roku phone app (which can also be used as a remote).
I loved having the IR blaster on my Galaxy S6, and thought it was lame that it wasn’t around when I upgraded to my S8+. Though I will say that the pre-installed third-party app got on the enshittification train at some point. As I started getting random ads on my lock screen and found that this app cause. So that would be one thing that kind of made losing the IR blaster suck less. Still it sucks to lose features that were able to exist on my smaller phones now that I started getting the + and Ultra size models. Most certainly could fit the aux port at minimum.
What do you even need the IR blaster for?
Restaurant TVs.
I use mine all the time. Lobby’s, waiting rooms, restaurants, bars… it’s really nice to have it available. Especially when it’s just me, waiting in the doctor’s office, and I don’t wanna hear or watch whatever is on. I can just mute it and enjoy the silence, or change the channel. It’s not like I’m bothering anyone else anyway, I just don’t wanna listen to a Fox News opinion piece at a loud volume, if ain’t nobody else is watching either
Instead of messing with other people’s things why wouldn’t you just put in ear buds?
bro you are equating muting a TV put there specifically to either advertise to you, or entertain you, to opening someone’s dinnerware cupboards. That’s just silly.
It takes the staff 3 seconds to undo what you did and no one gives a shit.
the lobby tvs are so annoying. if i’m alone for a while, i turn one off for a quiet section of the room
Or I could probably ask someone who works there to mute it for me, and it would be a non-issue (especially if it’s just me in the waiting area)
But I’ll just skip the middle man and mute it myself. And then unmute it when I leave or someone else walks in. It quite literally harms nobody and nobody has ever cared. If they did, I’m sure they would tell me and I would remember to bring earbuds/earplugs next time.
I think it’s more convenient for everyone, both me and the employee. I don’t have to bother them with something trivial, I’m not bothering anyone else. Quite literally a non-issue if you’re not being a malicious little asshat
You’ve never lost your remote???
Nope.
If they launch a phone similar to zenphone 10. I’ll def buy it.
This would be a dream for me too
ASUS removed the ability to unlock or root their most recent phones. Not letting users run what they want on the device they own is a hard pass from me.
Wtf! Omg fuck these companies
At least the 10 never had the ability. The 9’s ability was yanked in the middle of its lifecycle. I was 🤏 close to buying a 9 on the 10’s release for a discount & I am so glad I opened a second tab to check what the unlock process would be like before a purchase only remembering not long after release the was an OmniROM version. Additionally I was wise enough to see thru the bullshit department (PR) that the feature would “soon return after maintenance” after the unlock servers had already been down for a couple months. Unsurprisingly they were never brought back online & the unlock app was revoked from the downloads page for the device.
They’re only showing the battery replace in the CASE though, do the headphones themselves not use batteries?
What are you talking about? They show the headphone battery being replaced in the same image as the case. It’s a little button cell that hinges out.
I didn’t see that piece, just the case battery.
Fairbuds: replaceable batteries
Fairerbuds: open source app
Fairestbuds: open source firmware
Now I just wish that they would bring their phone to a US provider that is not T-Mobile. I can’t buy their phone until it runs on a network that I can use.
Can you not buy the phone and then get whatever sim you want?
Jesus your country is so messed up :(
wat? you cannot buy the phone and then choose the provider yourself?
Yeah most phones in the us are locked to a network. Some of them are unlocked to certain network vendors but won’t work with others (for example if a phone works on Verizon its a near guarantee even if its an unlocked phone it won’t work on any other networks)
It is a pretty simple thing to look up the bands that the phone supports. All of the providers publish the bands that they work on. This is not difficult. This is a manufactured problem.
It’s true. Its not a coincidence the most hostile telecom (Verizon) is also the one that had a former CEO as chairman of the FCC during the Trump administration. It would be very easy for OEMs to introduce more multiband phones to the market but Verizon has some sweet licensing deals on their network brands.
It’s mega gross!
Nice, how make one with the earbuds attached to each other with a wire and I’ll buy it for sure!
The thing about wired earbuds and headphones is that they’re already pretty sustainable. A good pair can last you decades, while wireless buds are usually throwaway products. So I think it’s pretty cool that they’re doing something about that for those that want wireless earbuds.
Ugh? I used to burn through wired earbuds at a pace of maybe one pair per month. You basically have to sit and not move if you don’t want to damage the wire IME
How much are you paying for your headphones? Nicer ones that don’t break as easily are probably a cost effective option for you.
And still like only $20 for ones with the ability to replace a broken wire
Some of the better ones have removable cables. You’ll usually just yank them out or worst case if the cable is damaged you can easily replace it.
I think you misunderstood, I want wireless headphones that have the two earbuds connected via a wire so you know, one doesn’t just pop out if your ear and drop on the street.
Ah, indeed I did.
I think JBL and some other brands do carry such earbuds, but maybe it might not be thz kind of wire you’d fancy. There are also cheaper options that have a wire linking the two ear buds, but as I said those are usually cheap and might not be up to your standards.
I have a set of those from Jabra
Bang and Olufsen used to make a set like that, they were pretty snazzy.
They are called “Wireless” headphones when there is a wire connecting them. “True Wireless” means two separate earbuds.
Then “true wireless” is a bad experience, at least from my eyes.
Ears?
All of these honestly ought to just come with a small hole and bring your own ‘lanyard’/‘string’. I can’t imagine it would require much in terms of design to put a hole in a corner.
There have wireless headphones that you can use a USB-C wire with, but that’s not an earbud.
Why would you want that? I can’t imagine to ever going back to non wireless buds
Because if you do any kind of outside activity including uh work? Once it falls out - it’s gone forever. That’s a pricey accident.
I know we are all made different but Earbuds do not stay in my ear for shit. That’s why I just use headband headphones. >!Shout-out to Shockz. Dam near impossible to lose running.!<
I really wish earbuds would stay in for me. But anything other than sitting down and listening, and they start slipping. I’ve tried so many different shapes/sized ones, but it’s the same problem. At least if my wireless slip, it’s still hooked around my ear
And I literally just started looking at some Shockz headphones the other day! Will probably try them out, I just hope it doesn’t make my head feel uncomfortable or cause headaches/vertigo. I doubt it, but they’re a little pricier than my wired ones, and it would suck if I ended up not liking them after a while
Beware they are bone conduction headphones so they are not audiophile quality. I think they sound fine but my wife says I’m half deaf anyways.
I use them for Audiobooks and they are fantastic for situational awareness. I can hear everything all around me even while doing other tasks.
I really appreciate the heads up! But I actually pretty much want them for the “situational awareness”. I feel like I understand the expectations for audio quality. I’m not very much an audiophile, especially for what I’m trying to get out of them.
I work in a pretty quiet environment that only gets really noisy if there’s a situation that needs to be handled. So I wanna be able to hear the alarms and would be pausing my podcast/whatever if I need to respond. And I also like the way it seems to fit and stay in place. It seems like a great fit for what I’m after, I just hope I’m not unlucky enough to be too sensitive to the vibrations. I kinda doubt it would be an issue, but that’s my (small) main concern… would I stop using them 6 months later because I can’t get used to it
Should I get the “pro” version for better quality, or stay away because it could be too much bass/vibration (even at lower volume)
But I’ve seen a few people at work with them, and they love them… and a few others have tried, but can’t deal with the vibrations
So I’ve been torn. I’m probably gonna try them cause they check almost every box for what I’m looking for. But should I get the pro version? Would it be too much? Idk, and I could maybe try them from a co-worker, but I feel like I would have to spend time with them before knowing what I like. Just kinda wanna buy the right kind, if I’ma throw the money at it
I guess the experience varies wildly based on ear shape but I never lost a bud. I think there are better ways to address this than to add a whole ass cable though. That’s not very creative.
What are the better ways to address this?
Ones that don’t involve a cable lol
Wired still has some advantages. Mainly sound quality.
I like the infinite battery life wired headphones have.
Don’t forget the little string so you can easily pop em out and let em dangle without losing them.
You may like Shokz. Their headsets are wireless and bone-conducting. The drivers get pressed to your temples with a flexible wire connecting them and you hear the sound conducting through your head instead of your ear canal. The only downside I’ve experienced with them is that they can only drown out so much noise, so if you’re planning on using them in a noisy environment, probably go with another choice.
A friend of mine has a set of them at work and they work well in our noisy environment - machine shop.
The rule for earbuds is that you can only have one in so the bone conduction are gaining popularity at work.
I wish they fit in my motorcycle helmet. My earbuds fall out all the time when I take my helmet off.
I can use them everywhere. Except my whole subway ride…
Is there app open source?
Their website has a page that says they “embrace open source”
I couldn’t find the source code specifically for their app. Maybe this?
https://github.com/fairphone/android_device_fairphone_FP5
Honestly have no clue what I’m looking at there. There seems to be no iOS equivalent, so who knows.
Otherwise, their app permissions seem pretty reasonable:
• discover and pair nearby Bluetooth devices
• Access Bluetooth settings
• Pair with Bluetooth devices
• connect to paired Bluetooth devicesBut yeah, if no open source, that can definitely be a deal-breaker for the market they seem to be targeting.
FairPhone’s is not really the open source crowd though?
They proclaim to value open source and it seems they’ve tried to do some stuff in the past. I think software freedom is a natural conclusion of hardware repairability but it seems their priority is instead on being green and workers up the chain getting a fair pay.
This seems like part of their android os for FP5, TWRP is a common open source android recovery image: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWRP_(software)
Probably a attempt to open source the component they can, in the release note, they list the components that are not working.
If only they shipped to the US…at least, I didn’t see that option.
First thing I looked at as well. Shame. I’ll buy them when my AirPods die if they offer shipping to the us.
Please, just give us back the headphone jacks!
Or let us amputate the legs of techbros (they’re obsolete in the world of cars and electric wheelchairs).
My 3.5mm AUX says hello
(Downvotes incomming) People still use wired headphones? It’s a very small market these days and Lemmy users are simply bubbled power users
Nah I like em because I’m paranoid. I had paranoiac family who weren’t power users who behaved similarly at the dawn of this shit.
Nobody knows what they’re missing out on after the early mp3 era conditioned people to be used to shitty audio quality.
Nowadays there is an earbuds with USB C wireless adapter like Anker Soundcore P10 or JBL Quantum. that is good and no pairing
I still have 200 euro wired in ear headphones that are my favorite pair so I need to 3,5mm port. But I never got the loud commotion over the disappearance of the port, because you can easily use a 3,5mm to USB-c cable. Having said that,I do still appreciate such a port in my phone because sometimes I forget to take the cable with me or I lose it.
I use both wireless and wired, depending on what I’m doing. The earbuds fall out when I’m exercising, but have better call-quality because of the noise canceling.
And I use wired for chatting, when playing games with friends on playstation. And I still have an ipod I use occasionally… so I just kinda have both.
I prefer to have a headphone jack on my phone, but I have a dongle adapter for usb-c, if I want to use my wired ones. I would just prefer not to use the adapter if I didn’t need to, because I’ve already had issues with my phone’s charging port trying to crap-out on me. The charging port isn’t as robust, and you do lose some quality with the dongle. I deal with it just fine; but a headphone jack on a phone might tip me towards purchasing that one, if I were looking to buy a new phone. It depends for me, but it’s not the end of the world, just an inconvenience that could easily be avoided
I mean for working out and on the go I use Bluetooth ear buds.
But damn do I sometimes wish I still had a headphone jack on my phone. Like just grabbing my nice pair of open ear headphones, throwing down on the couch and listening to music for example.
And of course I always had backup wired ear buds with me, just in case the battery ran out.
But eh, I can live without the headphone jack, now I just wish they would have used the space for a bigger battery.
Pretty sure the market would be bigger if manufacturers didn’t remove the feature in order to push to wireless.
What I like about them is not having a battery, meaning they have a lot less impact on the climate. And it isn’t needed when they are always connected to an other device with a battery that is less than 1m away.
no one uses wired headphones until they suddenly really wish they had wired headphones
Exactly how I bought mine. Only pair I could find in my house were insufferably cheap and hurt to use. Realized I could get a very decent wired pair for like $20. Love those things now
The low-end Chinese IEMs from the likes of MOONDROP, TRUTHEAR, etc. in that $20 range are surprisingly good if anyone is interested in picking up a spare.
I ended up getting a CCA CRA pair, and they’re surprisingly good too. Currently $22 for a pair with a mic. It was either those, or MOONDROP, but I think either of them would be well worth the 20 bucks
Well, I do.
As a DJ and audiophile in general, yeah I’m not thrilled on headphones using batteries and Bluetooth. I’ll give up my hard-line when I’m dead.
Sure, some wireless for exercise or casual use is fine. Full deal breaker if I’m performing though.
You’re doing DJ performance from a phone?
I’m not a DJ, but I can listen to high end audio from 3.5mm, even a phone, and you just can’t over Bluetooth. Its lossy janky and barely a standard.
There is also the latency if you are playing games with audio cues.
Oh. Oh god ive never even tried that. That sounds horrible.
Rhythm game enthusiast use wired headphones & kernel+pipewire settings to further reduce latency—as do musicians for recording on playback. Pro gamers use wired peripherals too for inputs & some even go analog for monitors for lower latency. Is it a stretch to say “wireless” is shorthand for “casual”? 🤔
AptX over Bluetooth is lossless and has been available since 2016. Android only though.
My experience of Bluetooth has always been settings that I can’t change, security issues, and devices that run different implementations on both ends. See ‘barely a standard’, even when the box for each reads the same standard number.
Which is why I’m so reluctant to call it a standard; it isnt standardized.
No, it isn’t. It just has higher bitrates, but still not enough for lossless.
If that’s true it seems like the name is fooling people
Towards the end of my DJ’ing career, I was to the point of showing up to a venue (that had an existing sound system) on my motorcycle with my controller, headphones, microphone (that didn’t smell like beer breath) and laptop in a backpack. I’d just plug in and go. But even then the idea of DJ’ing from just a phone or tablet seemed weird to me. I understood the appeal of it but…
The sticking point for most people is stereo. When you throw on AC/DC, you expect to hear the guitar out of the just one speaker but when DJ’ing a large room that doesn’t work. Half the room hears the guitar and the other half just hears high hat. So you end up flipping the mono switch, ya know, just for that one song. Then eventually you’ve done three gigs in a row and realize that it’s been mono the whole time and no-one noticed, not even you.
Headphones jacks have two audio out channels. We typically think of them as left and right, but they aren’t, that’s just how most people use them. Once you get past the mono idea, you realize you have two distinct audio outputs on your phone or tablet. If the music software can do the mono summing instead of the mixer, then then you can hook the “left” output cable to mixer ch 1, and the “right” to ch 2, and play different songs out each. Make sure the same output of the mixer goes to both speakers and you’re in business. You just need dj’ing software that can play two different songs at the same time on your phone and interface with a controller, probably via bluetooth.
Now you can show up to a party with just your phone that you were already carrying anyway, plug in to their controller, and make a surprise appearance.
It still weirds me out, but modern phones have the horsepower to do this. They certainly don’t have the disk space for a terabyte library, so you aren’t going to work a six hour wedding with an iphone, but there are TB SD cards so certain Androids could certainly do this.
There’s probably also software that will do everything over bluetooth so a completely wireless phone could work.
I’ve been out of the game for over a decade. I can’t imagine how far the controllers and software have come and don’t want to find out because I’m sure my poor wallet can’t handle it.
Excellent points, appreciate the write up. Better said than I could myself.
I will also note that in my personal experience phone was more of a hail mary when I’d be doing like a wedding reception or private party and needed a tune for client that wasn’t already in my USBs. When the tip depends on it, yes, I absolutely DJ with the phone.
For a while, youtube was a life saver for new songs.
I agree modern phones have the horsepower to do a full on audio production; how does a 3.5mm jack help in this setup that a multi-bus USB-C DAC or mixer can’t do a better job than a driver that’s confined to 5mm of space?
A DAC is definitely the better option in my opinion, especially if your phone doesnt have great audio quality.
When the controllers first came out, they’d cheap out by making the computer process the audio. My first Bherringer controller would convert the mic input to digital and send it to the computer to mix on the sound card. If the computer was disconnected you couldnt use the mic or hook up a cd player.
Some people are just cheap and manufactures will make whatever people will buy. The phone already has audio, so the controller is just that: a bunch of buttons. You dont have speakers built into a keyboard or mouse. A controller is just an HID.
Yep. Lots.
Less than you think
Probably not. I’m curious about actual number and not just anecdotes though.
There’s no way I’m spending a lot on a headphone I need to toss in the garbage when the battery becomes useless.
I imagine phones no longer having headphone jacks isn’t helping the wired headphones market.
Some devices cannot use Bluetooth audio devices, or it’s buggy or laggy af. I don’t mind wireless buds for the gym, but they sound worse and die before a flight across the US is complete. Wired headsets so don’t have to be charged, or if they do have ANC, its usually a replacable battery instead of a rechargeable battery.
I dunno if it’s just my Fold 4, but when I ride the train or visit an apartment, I get bombarded by pairing requests from Bose headphones and other bluetooth devices like home speakers. It’s probably some setting that Samsung quietly flipped on in a recent patch, but it’s really annoying. Fuck off, 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚎’𝚜 𝙱𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚒𝚎𝚝𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝟺𝟻 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜, I don’t need pairing notifications every 10 seconds.
looks kinda cool. will probably get them
Really happy to see replaceable batteries! It’s a wear item and guaranteed to brick your device after a number of years if they aren’t replaceable.
guaranteed to brick your device after a number of years
But what’s the number? Also, a battery not lasting all day is hardly bricking.
iPhone batteries are covered under warranty if they drop below - I think - 80% of original capacity. Using that as a benchmark, something between that and 50% is going to be frustrating for the average user. Perhaps frustrating enough to replace.
“Brick” caught me off guard too. When thinking about a product that can’t be used while simultaneously charging has a battery that’s nearly shot, though, it struck me as a fair description.
I think that’s an issue of semantics. If someone needs their device to last all day and it doesn’t anymore, then it is effectively bricked. Could one find a workaround to the issue? Oh probably, something as simple as lugging around a battery bank should do the trick, but ultimately users being able to just swap the battery in their device themselves isn’t a big ask. It gives a modicum of ownership back to the person who actually bought the device.
Which Bluetooth headphones last all day without topping up at all? I’m curious what a use case is that would require someone need them.
Nah I’m thinking of phones in this scenario. That said, both benefit from having user replaceable batteries.
Do you not know that batteries stop being able to charge eventually?
Yeah. Eventually…
Lol
Replaceable batteries are coming to the EU in general, at least for portable devices, via the EU Batteries Regulation, which is in force already and requires all portable batteries to be easily removable and replaceable by the end user from 2027
I don’t believe the EU will make earbuds batteries serviceable. Phones and laptops, sure.
EU has single handedly done more to improve
myselfmy life than my own government with this one law.Damn, how much do you pay your government?
Low income American here, upwards of 24% of everything I make.
And every penny of it used to fund fresh boots for your neck.
Well I do like FDAs, and roads though. But I’d rather have healthcare as well, and I’d like way less of it to go toward it cops and wars. Mainly I want a lot more of the taxes coming from the billionaires.
more taxes from billionaires
Okay so look up the name of the guy who was point man for the business plot.
Look up his son’s and grandson’s names.
And then, after doing that; explain how that’s ever gonna happen.
i hope this eu law makes it happen elsewhere, if anything for them to take better advantage of the economy of scale.
and if they dont ill be coveting some eu devices.
They probably calculate cost saved by economy of scale, vs profit generated from planned obsolescence in other markets.
Might be more profitable to run different SKUs.
The EU is a relatively large market, and it wouldn’t make economic sense to develop and produce EU-specific devices. I’m pretty sure you’ll also be seeing replaceable batteries.
They got rid of the headphone jack for this PoS?
> only support AAC and SBC codecs
> available for 149
Eh.
Starting to notice a trend with these “specialty” device companies, crap specs and high (relatively) prices.
The FP5, released last year has a SoC that performs worse than the Tensor. The TENSOR, a chip widely regarded as shitty, and can be had on a phone 200$ cheaper. :/
asfasfsad
Other’s make it cheaper because they don’t care about “fair”. How do you think cheap products become cheap? Think about it for a second.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
You can be “fair” and pricey, just put a better competitive SoC, rn it’s near budget tier for upper mid range money
And then they expect someone to use it for 10 years? LMAO, that thing is gonna be sluggish AF in another 1 or 2 tops, can’t imagine trying to use it in 10 lolol
You can be “fair” and pricey, just put a better competitive SoC, rn it’s near budget tier for upper mid range money
That’s the thing, fair SoC’s aren’t cheap because they aren’t available everywhere nor is a fair supply chain easy to setup. Do you think somebody just snapped their fingers or trusted the words written in a contract? "This supplier says they’re fair and ethical, so I’ll believe them 🤷 "
Who do you think has to verify suppliers claims? Do you think they are free? Do you think a manufacturer will simply throw out an unfair supplier to be ethical and fair if that meant loss of business or revenue?
Think about it from the extreme: are slaves cheaper than paid employees? Then continue the thoughts from there and the impacts they have on the cost and availability of products. Just walk through the logistics yourself and compare the cost of doing business ethically vs not. Maybe even write it down to get a better picture.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
The high prices at least should be obvious, a product using fairly sourced components will always be more expensive.
fairly sourced components
Uses Qualcomm
Mmm, ok…
The workers literally get paid bonuses for each phone that gets made. The phone’s parts all get certified for sustainability. They need to find manufacturers willing to fulfill their requirements, for which they will obviously charge more.
I’m not saying that they’re for everyone or should be free from criticism. I personally decided against buying one due to the size, performance and camera. But if you’re complaining about a sustainable product costing more than a regular one, you’re missing the point and were never in the target audience in the first place.
I had at least hoped for FastStream. (For good quality audio whike using the microphone)
Hang on, is THAT why call quality is abysmal with practically every bluetooth device?
Yes. and why it’s wildly complicated on Windows machines where you have an audio output device for headphones and for headset, and once something starts using the mic the output device itself changes.
So joining team chat in a game will either make audio sound horrible or break it entirely if you had specified the output device instead of using default device.
How in the fuck is bluetooth even a competing standard? If it’s “good enough” than so is SD video and VHS tapes.
Bluetooth turns twenty-six this year, maybe we’ll be closer to good integration once it hits it’s thirties.
There’s a lot of things that make the Bluetooth experience better… it’s just almost all focused on mobile phones, maybe apple laptops if you stay in their walled gardens, but definitely not stock windows.
I say stock because if you do use windows and want to use Bluetooth you can improve things with a third party driver https://www.bluetoothgoodies.com/a2dp/ it’s still not great but at least you can use better codecs than default
I mean even Sony didn’t get it working on my XM4s, I don’t know why people expect it from $150 earbuds.
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Hard disagree that earbuds negate codec importance. I love open-back over-ears, but one of my best pairs of headphones are Moondrop IEMs, and I can hear differences in audio quality more noticeably on them than a lot of speakers. I very often plug them into a Bluetooth receiver for semi-wireless convenience, and I can absolutely hear the difference between LDAC and SBC.
However, yeah definitely agreed that $150 is fair for what’s being offered here. Limited codec support is common (if unfortunate) enough in similarly priced gear without the other benefits these bring, so I’d say it’s fair enough unless the drivers themselves are bad.
asdfasf
In-ear phones have the potential of having the highest fidelity of all headphone types. So, no, being a “codec snob” is completely justified. Though I personally won’t be using BT phones before we get lossless connection as a standard. Wired are cheaper, last longer and have less environmental impact during production and after EOL.
In-ear phones have the potential of having the highest fidelity of all headphone types.
How so? Isn’t converting from digital to analog better than from digital to digital to analog?
Anti Commercial AI thingy
Nothing to do with ADA conversions (and digital-to-digital, eg SRC or bitdepth conversion, is completely transparent if done even remotely adequately). Small drivers close to eardrum with good seal just seem to be easier to manage when it comes to frequency response and distortion. Most open circumaural headphones, for example, seem to have deficiencies in lower end no matter the price.
Small drivers close to eardrum with good seal just seem to be easier to manage when it comes to frequency response and distortion.
Are you saying the length of the cable from my phone to my ears has an impact on audio quality?
Also, is there no loss when converting from the digital audio format to whatever bluetooth uses?
Most open circumaural headphones, for example, seem to have deficiencies in lower end no matter the price.
This seems unrelated to jack vs bluetooth.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
Are you saying the length of the cable from my phone to my ears has an impact on audio quality?
Why of course that is why OP only buys the finest MONSTER Vibranium-Plated Unobtanium-Engraved Analog Audiophile Cables.
No, they’re saying accurately reproducing sounds for people to listen to has much more to do with the vibrating membrane to eardrum interaction than anything that happens between the source material and the vibrating membrane.
Theoretically, yes. Practically, bluetooth has been way funkier than cable ever has for me. It drops, loses packets, and sometimes tries to catch up on whatever shit it was doing to suddenly have the audio sound like it’s fast forwarding. My ears aren’t the best, but that’s the kind of shit I do hear. Membranes can’t protect you from that.
Anti Commercial AI thingy
It’s not just about quality (AAC is perfectly fine quality-wise), it’s IMHO more about the extreme latency, and the fact that they have to to drop down to terrible-sounding HSP/HSP when using the microphone, since A2DP is monodirectional. Sucks that they don’t support LE Audio.
Bluetooth headphones are unusable for videos and games if they only support high latency codecs.
deleted by creator
Turning your nose up at SBC isn’t being a codec snob; it’s having functioning ears.
And if you’re on Android, AAC is not well implemented compared to on iOS / MacOS. Maybe this has changed in the past couple years but it was immediately noticeable to me when I upgraded from the WH-1000XM3s to the XM4s, I could immediately tell that the audio was worse if they weren’t using LDAC. And these don’t have LDAC.
Unlike with competent compression codecs (mp3 vs AAC vs FLAC), where most people genuinely cannot tell the difference between a well-compressed song vs a lossless one, many people can immediately tell the difference between AptX and AAC or SBC on Android.
There are plenty of true wireless headphones out there that support LDAC or AptX for less than $100. It’s not surprising to me that people in their target audience would think $150 for something that sounds terrible to them isn’t reasonable.
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You don’t think the Bluetooth codec makes a difference when you’re using Bluetooth headphones? When else would it make a difference?
I feel like you’re just confusing the codec used for compressing audio for storage and wireless transmission with the codec used for transmission via Bluetooth. That or you’ve just never experienced a setting where a better codec was being used.
SBC can sound okay, but see here for a breakdown of why it almost never actually does. Basically, it’s capped at only using a fraction of the available bandwidth, even though it could use more if not for arbitrarily imposed limitations.
Running sbc at higher bitrates than default sound subjectively better than most existing codecs. I use 552 kbit/s regulary and it sound great. Unfortunately the support for higher sbc bitrates is terrible.
I’ve not been able to listen to high bitrate SBC myself, but that tracks with my understanding, too. I read this article - https://habr.com/en/articles/456182/ - recently, when trying to confirm my understanding of why there’s such a huge difference in sound quality from codec to codec.
What setup do you have where you’re able to listen to 552 kbps SBC?
My most expensive earbuds were $75.
At $150, I’d rather buy multiple “lesser” ear buds and not worry about battery lifespan.
I have 2 pairs of hang-on-ear type I use for the gym/exercise, that were $35 each. That’s less than 1/4 the price of these.
Then these aren’t for you and that’s fine. You don’t value what they offer, and you’re not obligated to buy them. Some of us do.
Sorry, what? They are obliged to buy them, if not today, they will be when their phone stops working and they have to buy a new one, because that won’t have a jack connector.
Except of course if they don’t use a smartphone.
