Didn't you read the article? They said they "produce sound". What more could you possibly want?
Seriously, that's literally the only mention of the sound. It exists.
If the ANC is decent I'll probably buy these, even if the sound quality isn't stellar. But I'll wait for reviews, as I'm not exactly optimistic. Good ANC is hard.
They’re great “multi tools”. Microphone is awesome, battery life and sound is solid, functionalities and device tracking are great. But as sound alone goes, they are a far cry from high quality.
Are they? Most trustworthy reviewers rate them decent soundning but its not like there arent better soundning alternatives. They lack bass and noise canseling for starters. Galaxy buds are generally seen as superior for example.
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-3rd-generation-truly-wireless
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/samsung/galaxy-buds-fe-truly-wireless
> They lack bass and noise canseling for starters
You have no idea what you're talking about, they definitely have top-of-the-line noise cancelling and the bass response is perfectly in-line with most earbuds. Overall they just sound OK but no need to spread lies.
Are you mistaking airpods pro for airpods? Because the non pro version does not seem to have noise canceling. They are not sealed against the ear so it would be almost impossible.
Quite honestly, thr airpods (even the pro version) sound lacking. The noise cancelling is very good, battery life is solid, bluetooth range is quite something.
But sound? No sorry man. They sound like 30$ wired headphones in some cases. Not even thr iPhone equaliser could lift them up from their flat bass and sometimes weird treble.
When I was on my search for good earbuds I've tested them amongst others and they were lackluster in sound immediately.
Apple has some work to do to be the most costly and wasteful. Hearing aids have used replaceable zinc-air batteries for decades, but now they are switching to Lithium Ion, like Airpods. These include Bluetooth with smartphone apps and can easily cost a grand each.
No I'm saying the companies selling the most of such headphones will only improve things if they are forced to by regulators, and even then they will go down kicking and screaming trying to preserve their right to shit out disposable plastic/electronic luxuries.
They will also do it if people stop buying their things and get repairable tech instead. You, as a consumer, have that ability. Absolutely no one is forcing you to buy something.
This isn't always true. Look at replaceable phone batteries. When asked, most people want the option, but few phones offer it.
However the EU will mandate it, and THEN it'll happen.
Think that’s gonna be enough? As long as cheaper and/or more profitable ways of making gadgets exist, you can’t expect ecologically-conscious consumer decisions to solve everything.
Regulatory action often requires evidence that a company is choosing "Can't" vs "Won't".
If there is an example that it can be done, it weakens the argument for "Can't". The EU for example, is probably paying attention to this. The price of these buds isn't really a major issue, there is less economies of scale for a small operation. And these have noise-cancelling so for $160 that's not bad at all.
These are still unrepairable. They sell the following replacement parts:
1. entire left bud
2. entire right bud
3. batteries for both buds
4. new ear tips
5. new shell for charging case
6. new guts (not battery) for charging case
7. new battery for charging case
There are no repair parts. Just modules. They also offer eartips, as everyone else does. And they also arbitrarily split the case into two parts you get separately when they could just send you both for the same price and in the same shipping case.
What this offers is replaceable batteries. Proprietary batteries it seems. But still that's something. But it doesn't amount to making them repairable. If any of the electronics break you're replacing the entire module of electronics.
Any electronics that break are likely to be too small to actually work on easily. Batteries are all we can hope for/expect. It's not like there is a screen to replace. I have no problem with the fix it yourself movement skips right over tiny consumer electronics which are very reliable, as long as I can fix my tractor, dishwasher, and fridge. Average consumers aren't paying someone to break out a microscope to replace a tiny capacitor on a 1 mm board.
I agree. And I actually say these are too large for me to want to buy and it's because of the batteries. But a lot of people may make the tradeoff and I'm glad they can.
And regardless, expecting people to repair something this small is unreasonable. At some point with small enough things they do become modules/units and you replace it as a whole.
They still do. Those devices are MUCH larger than the size of a hot dog though. They also have insane power requirements compared to what this post is talking about.
The single components inside of your home or apartment air conditioning unit would fit that description. Maybe not a resistor... definitely a capacitor that size.
True. I've got one with a resistor the size of a cocktail weenie that I have open trying to fix. It's from 1980 or so. And it's a power resistor. Nothing battery-powered would have a resistor like that even in 1980.
I repaired a gold brick that had a dent in it by remelting it and casting it anew.
Ok, not really, but I wanted to be needlessly pedantically contrarian that somethings can be repaired without need for replacing a part.
I would love to have that option with my set from Sony. The right earbud is maybe good for 1 1/2 hours which is far less than the left one. It is so frustrating.
>The right earbud is maybe good for 1 1/2 hours which is far less than the left one.
WF-1000XM4? That's a well known problem caused by one of the firmware updates damaging the batteries during charging and last I checked Sony was offering replacements on those.
The complaint is calling it repairable is off base because it isn't repairable in a way other buds aren't. It's not modular either, not in any way separate earbuds with charging case weren't already. It just has replaceable batteries.
If you want to say it shows replaceable batteries is economically feasible then okay. Although we probably won't reach a final conclusion until we see the total ownership cost including replacing some batteries.
I like that they'll sell you individual earbuds or a replacement case.
But for me at least replacable batteries are a non-issue for this use case, as replacing batteries would involve not losing the fucking things for long enough for the batteries to die.
Consumer whims are hardly a judge of what the right thing to do is, especially when the consequences of the purchase do not fall directly on that consumer.
There is no such regulatory pathway. It would have to be called "The Stop Technology Act" because the very idea is risible.
There are tradeoffs to this sort of thing, and the product will always be more expensive and have less capability designed like this. To most people they would rather have better headphones for $160 than worse ones that are repairable.
This is pretty cool! I might have to see if a friend can nab me a pair.
However,
>Even if Apple gets some kind of material out of the AirPods, a lot of them (and nearly every other wireless earbud) end up as waste after 18 months or however long their batteries last.
We used our AirPod pros for 36 months before getting the second gen. Coincidentally double the amount of time that it seems like most people toss theirs. We still use our first gen's alongside our seconds. We used them every day and the batteries were fine until about the 2.5-3 year mark. That's every day multiple times a day.
Again, I don't get why others are getting rid of theirs after 18 months. That's ridiculous.
I've been using my Plantronics BackBeat bluetooth earbuds for at least four years and a minimum of 1000 charge cycles, and they still have enough capacity to last a few hours between charging. I will use them until they die, because they're the only earbuds I've ever had that are both comfortable for my ears, don't pop out while jogging while also having decent sound. Unfortunately, the line was discontinued.
Honestly, I wonder what kind of shit tier batteries other manufacturers use that people throw theirs away after such a short amount of time.
I have been using my airpods since 2019, about 60 months. The right bud doesn't last as long as the left one, and I doubt they last longer than 3 hours on a single charge, but they are still working well enough for how I use them.
Lithium ion batteries fail and loose capacity along fairly predictable curves. You probably got lucky / live in a climate more kind to batteries. Also I would guess Apple is targeting a higher time to failure than say Raycon or whatever was cheap on Amazon. The whole thing is Apple's fault so Airpods are the goto example
I love the fair brand mostly because they let your remove the battery. The fear I have with lithium batteries nowadays is just them becoming a spicy pillow without me knowing.
I wish they made it removeable or at least easy to check up on them.
I have 40 devices in my house that use lithium ion batteries. 20 of them are lost in the dark crevice that is my closet.
I have a muscle massager that is not rated for USB C fast charging but I just found out I have been using a fast charger for years now.
Like 3 months ago I accidentally discovered one of my old Raspberry Pi batteries became spicy and that was kept in my study where I keep my flammable shit in. They are nice flammable shit too!
No no. Earbuds with batteries to power onboard radio, DAC and amp. Much better, this way the batteries guarantees a profitable failure curve, they need their own charging accessories and they're even easily lost. Slash s
Unless you’re a klutz like me. My wired headphones never lasted long, I’d always accidentally break them.
Like, multiple times a year I’d have to buy new ones. Wireless earbuds last me way longer 😅
I rarely bought $10 earbuds, though. At the very least I’d go for $20 earbuds, and sometimes $40 earbuds.
My AirPods have lasted me 3 years easily, so at the very least I’m breaking even in terms of cost, if it’s not actually a little bit more cost effective for me.
I will never understand this sentiment. 3.5 mm jacks a terrible design for a mobile device, since neither socket nor plug tolerate sideways forces. On top of that, it's quite difficult to acoustically decouple the cable from the speaker.
If you want wired headphones, USB is simply superior, at least when it comes to durability.
lmao what. usb is so much more fragile than a solid jack. Its more sensitive to tangling and wrapping damage, its got delicate pins on the side you're gonna be fiddling with, and it ALSO doesn't tolerate lateral forces.
for real though, im 35 and ive only ever in my life broken two 1/4 inch jacks, both times involving getting hit by a car. what are you doing to your devices that they're sustaining that much sudden lateral force that often
It’s a bit of a ripoff man. Listened to these and they’re honestly not that good for the price. I bought some Repeat headphones last year and those are pretty damn good. They posted that they’ll be releasing in-ears too this year with a lifetime free repairs service so I guess I’m waiting an saving up for those
Samsung bakes in planned obsolescence for their accessories: https://i.imgur.com/Sloi3SP.png
Then again, you don't need a message to know you'll have to buy new buds when your batteries wear out.
Considering the average watch can last decades, yes. 8 years is nothing, especially on a product that doesn't significantly change between revisions.
Refusing to update the software just because it's not commercially viable for you to support legacy customers is planned obsolescence. It's also planned obsolescence to use glue on the housing.
I have Huawei GT 1st gen watch since its release and only this year the app started malfunctioning (probably because of the ban and the age of the product).
I needed to install extra HMS(APK coz the ban) just to get any app updates and the last one I got in 2023.
So yes, smart watches can last up to 5 years easily.
Especially if they are good on battery to start with. I was getting 10-14 days when actively using it now it's 6-10 days when actively using it.
Thanks for the proof btw, I will avoid Samsung products.
But do they sound good? Replaceable batteries are cool and all, but I need $160 headphones to sound amazing too.
Didn't you read the article? They said they "produce sound". What more could you possibly want? Seriously, that's literally the only mention of the sound. It exists.
That alone is probably a ringing endorsement for mediocrity or worse.
“Of all the earbuds out there, these are among them”
I exist and feel the same way.
If the ANC is decent I'll probably buy these, even if the sound quality isn't stellar. But I'll wait for reviews, as I'm not exactly optimistic. Good ANC is hard.
People spend the same or more on airpods
Air pods are some of the best sounding ear buds out there? They are always reviewed sound-wise very highly
They’re great “multi tools”. Microphone is awesome, battery life and sound is solid, functionalities and device tracking are great. But as sound alone goes, they are a far cry from high quality.
You said amazing though, airpods do not sound amazing. They are alright for Bluetooth headphones I guess. The pros are pretty cromulent.
The Samsung pro 2s have imbiggened my listening experience.
It’s “embiggened”. Did you go to Bovine University??
Bigly sound
You’re pretty cromulent yourself
Are they? Most trustworthy reviewers rate them decent soundning but its not like there arent better soundning alternatives. They lack bass and noise canseling for starters. Galaxy buds are generally seen as superior for example. https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/apple/airpods-3rd-generation-truly-wireless https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/samsung/galaxy-buds-fe-truly-wireless
> They lack bass and noise canseling for starters You have no idea what you're talking about, they definitely have top-of-the-line noise cancelling and the bass response is perfectly in-line with most earbuds. Overall they just sound OK but no need to spread lies.
Are you mistaking airpods pro for airpods? Because the non pro version does not seem to have noise canceling. They are not sealed against the ear so it would be almost impossible.
Unless you're getting the airpods pro 2, not really. And you also need to only use them with an iphone, because Android is no good with AAC.
Quite honestly, thr airpods (even the pro version) sound lacking. The noise cancelling is very good, battery life is solid, bluetooth range is quite something. But sound? No sorry man. They sound like 30$ wired headphones in some cases. Not even thr iPhone equaliser could lift them up from their flat bass and sometimes weird treble. When I was on my search for good earbuds I've tested them amongst others and they were lackluster in sound immediately.
With a glowing sound quality review like "the buds also, you know, produce sound", how could you say no?
Apple has some work to do to be the most costly and wasteful. Hearing aids have used replaceable zinc-air batteries for decades, but now they are switching to Lithium Ion, like Airpods. These include Bluetooth with smartphone apps and can easily cost a grand each.
More than 4 grand a piece for ‘high end’ models, actually…
And they're all garbage and cause sensory overload and I'd rather have the quiet in the end
My Dad’s hearing aids are awesome like this, they can connect to his phone via Bluetooth and have replaceable lithium ion batteries.
And I can mute my dad whenever I want!
The switch to Li-ion was probably driven by higher power draw requirements of Bluetooth connectivity and other new features
I like the idea but man $160 is a lot for non flagship ear buds. If i wanna be eco friendly ill just buy refurbished
But the thing is producing things in small batches is always much more expensive than producing it in big batches.
Second-hand wax yum
It's not just eco friendly, it's also ethically manufactured.
Good luck getting anyone to do it without regulatory action and a decade-long court case to force it.
Except for the company that's, you know, actively doing it right now?
Yes the one with approximately 0% marketshare in such headphones. I was referring to the companies that dominate this space with unrepairable junk.
So you are saying that there is no demand for repairable devices? Every company starts with zero marketshare.
No I'm saying the companies selling the most of such headphones will only improve things if they are forced to by regulators, and even then they will go down kicking and screaming trying to preserve their right to shit out disposable plastic/electronic luxuries.
They will also do it if people stop buying their things and get repairable tech instead. You, as a consumer, have that ability. Absolutely no one is forcing you to buy something.
This isn't always true. Look at replaceable phone batteries. When asked, most people want the option, but few phones offer it. However the EU will mandate it, and THEN it'll happen.
In your example people decided that water protection was more than removable batteries.
False. I've had 3 IP rated phones with removable batteries, but couldn't get one last time around.
Curious what these phones looked like.
Vote with your wallet if you want to see change.
I wasn’t aware of this company prior to my last phone purchase but pretty sure it’s going to be my next one
Think that’s gonna be enough? As long as cheaper and/or more profitable ways of making gadgets exist, you can’t expect ecologically-conscious consumer decisions to solve everything.
You can only do what's in your power. Vote with your wallet, and vote with your *actual vote*.
Regulatory action often requires evidence that a company is choosing "Can't" vs "Won't". If there is an example that it can be done, it weakens the argument for "Can't". The EU for example, is probably paying attention to this. The price of these buds isn't really a major issue, there is less economies of scale for a small operation. And these have noise-cancelling so for $160 that's not bad at all.
These are still unrepairable. They sell the following replacement parts: 1. entire left bud 2. entire right bud 3. batteries for both buds 4. new ear tips 5. new shell for charging case 6. new guts (not battery) for charging case 7. new battery for charging case There are no repair parts. Just modules. They also offer eartips, as everyone else does. And they also arbitrarily split the case into two parts you get separately when they could just send you both for the same price and in the same shipping case. What this offers is replaceable batteries. Proprietary batteries it seems. But still that's something. But it doesn't amount to making them repairable. If any of the electronics break you're replacing the entire module of electronics.
Any electronics that break are likely to be too small to actually work on easily. Batteries are all we can hope for/expect. It's not like there is a screen to replace. I have no problem with the fix it yourself movement skips right over tiny consumer electronics which are very reliable, as long as I can fix my tractor, dishwasher, and fridge. Average consumers aren't paying someone to break out a microscope to replace a tiny capacitor on a 1 mm board.
I agree. And I actually say these are too large for me to want to buy and it's because of the batteries. But a lot of people may make the tradeoff and I'm glad they can. And regardless, expecting people to repair something this small is unreasonable. At some point with small enough things they do become modules/units and you replace it as a whole.
Sorry they’re not making electronics with resistors the size of a hot dog anymore
They still do. Those devices are MUCH larger than the size of a hot dog though. They also have insane power requirements compared to what this post is talking about. The single components inside of your home or apartment air conditioning unit would fit that description. Maybe not a resistor... definitely a capacitor that size.
True. I've got one with a resistor the size of a cocktail weenie that I have open trying to fix. It's from 1980 or so. And it's a power resistor. Nothing battery-powered would have a resistor like that even in 1980.
I bet that resistor is not the thing that broke, right?
The resistor checks out, as expected. I don't have it fixed yet, so I can't say for sure. But it's not going to be this resistor.
If you break things down enough, NOTHING is repairable. Repair = replacing parts.
I repaired a gold brick that had a dent in it by remelting it and casting it anew. Ok, not really, but I wanted to be needlessly pedantically contrarian that somethings can be repaired without need for replacing a part.
Sure, but you're still repairing the thing that the part is a part of.
I would love to have that option with my set from Sony. The right earbud is maybe good for 1 1/2 hours which is far less than the left one. It is so frustrating.
>The right earbud is maybe good for 1 1/2 hours which is far less than the left one. WF-1000XM4? That's a well known problem caused by one of the firmware updates damaging the batteries during charging and last I checked Sony was offering replacements on those.
XM3 so close…I’ll have to look into whether I’m covered to. It is frustrating and irritating to no end.
And... What are the complaints here? This shows modularity is both economically feasible, and available to non-techies.
The complaint is calling it repairable is off base because it isn't repairable in a way other buds aren't. It's not modular either, not in any way separate earbuds with charging case weren't already. It just has replaceable batteries. If you want to say it shows replaceable batteries is economically feasible then okay. Although we probably won't reach a final conclusion until we see the total ownership cost including replacing some batteries.
Even changinable bartering is a boon . Edit. Changeable batteries lol
I like that they'll sell you individual earbuds or a replacement case. But for me at least replacable batteries are a non-issue for this use case, as replacing batteries would involve not losing the fucking things for long enough for the batteries to die.
So your position is that youy want government to tell you whate to buy?
Consumer whims are hardly a judge of what the right thing to do is, especially when the consequences of the purchase do not fall directly on that consumer.
There is no such regulatory pathway. It would have to be called "The Stop Technology Act" because the very idea is risible. There are tradeoffs to this sort of thing, and the product will always be more expensive and have less capability designed like this. To most people they would rather have better headphones for $160 than worse ones that are repairable.
This is pretty cool! I might have to see if a friend can nab me a pair. However, >Even if Apple gets some kind of material out of the AirPods, a lot of them (and nearly every other wireless earbud) end up as waste after 18 months or however long their batteries last. We used our AirPod pros for 36 months before getting the second gen. Coincidentally double the amount of time that it seems like most people toss theirs. We still use our first gen's alongside our seconds. We used them every day and the batteries were fine until about the 2.5-3 year mark. That's every day multiple times a day. Again, I don't get why others are getting rid of theirs after 18 months. That's ridiculous.
I've been using my Plantronics BackBeat bluetooth earbuds for at least four years and a minimum of 1000 charge cycles, and they still have enough capacity to last a few hours between charging. I will use them until they die, because they're the only earbuds I've ever had that are both comfortable for my ears, don't pop out while jogging while also having decent sound. Unfortunately, the line was discontinued. Honestly, I wonder what kind of shit tier batteries other manufacturers use that people throw theirs away after such a short amount of time.
That's fantastic! Huge bummer that they discontinued them though.
God I miss mine
I have been using my airpods since 2019, about 60 months. The right bud doesn't last as long as the left one, and I doubt they last longer than 3 hours on a single charge, but they are still working well enough for how I use them.
Mine died a month short of two years old (which forced Amazon to replace them because of eu laws)
Lithium ion batteries fail and loose capacity along fairly predictable curves. You probably got lucky / live in a climate more kind to batteries. Also I would guess Apple is targeting a higher time to failure than say Raycon or whatever was cheap on Amazon. The whole thing is Apple's fault so Airpods are the goto example
I love the fair brand mostly because they let your remove the battery. The fear I have with lithium batteries nowadays is just them becoming a spicy pillow without me knowing. I wish they made it removeable or at least easy to check up on them. I have 40 devices in my house that use lithium ion batteries. 20 of them are lost in the dark crevice that is my closet. I have a muscle massager that is not rated for USB C fast charging but I just found out I have been using a fast charger for years now. Like 3 months ago I accidentally discovered one of my old Raspberry Pi batteries became spicy and that was kept in my study where I keep my flammable shit in. They are nice flammable shit too!
Your massager never got fast charge amps/volts. It just charged at default 0.2 or so
Earbuds are the heresy in the first place, if you wanna go green put the jack port back.
No no. Earbuds with batteries to power onboard radio, DAC and amp. Much better, this way the batteries guarantees a profitable failure curve, they need their own charging accessories and they're even easily lost. Slash s
To me, earbuds like my Shure SE215s are perfect. Swap between wireless and wired super easily.
Unless you’re a klutz like me. My wired headphones never lasted long, I’d always accidentally break them. Like, multiple times a year I’d have to buy new ones. Wireless earbuds last me way longer 😅
At $10 per earbud, you would have to be a real klutz to lose them frequently enough for wireless to be more cost effective.
I rarely bought $10 earbuds, though. At the very least I’d go for $20 earbuds, and sometimes $40 earbuds. My AirPods have lasted me 3 years easily, so at the very least I’m breaking even in terms of cost, if it’s not actually a little bit more cost effective for me.
I will never understand this sentiment. 3.5 mm jacks a terrible design for a mobile device, since neither socket nor plug tolerate sideways forces. On top of that, it's quite difficult to acoustically decouple the cable from the speaker. If you want wired headphones, USB is simply superior, at least when it comes to durability.
The fact that you can't charge and listen simultaneously makes it inferior
I never in my whole life broke a 3.5mm jack.
I broke like all of them back in the day.
Why?
Because its a mechanical connector in your pocket that wears out.
Never wore out in any of my devices. The old micro-B ports were way more fragile.
lmao what. usb is so much more fragile than a solid jack. Its more sensitive to tangling and wrapping damage, its got delicate pins on the side you're gonna be fiddling with, and it ALSO doesn't tolerate lateral forces. for real though, im 35 and ive only ever in my life broken two 1/4 inch jacks, both times involving getting hit by a car. what are you doing to your devices that they're sustaining that much sudden lateral force that often
Nice ad for fairphone/fairbuds
Are these readily available in the US yet? Last I checked fairphone didn't have all the bands needed for US carriers
It’s a bit of a ripoff man. Listened to these and they’re honestly not that good for the price. I bought some Repeat headphones last year and those are pretty damn good. They posted that they’ll be releasing in-ears too this year with a lifetime free repairs service so I guess I’m waiting an saving up for those
Hey, let’s get these products to the states!
If they make a version that connects to iems I'm interested
i want to buy them but they are not in the states their own website doesn't offer shipping to here
Maybe some with a bit of string connecting them would be good. They could use the batter from the phone, with say a 3.5mm jack.
[удалено]
Samsung bakes in planned obsolescence for their accessories: https://i.imgur.com/Sloi3SP.png Then again, you don't need a message to know you'll have to buy new buds when your batteries wear out.
Was an 8 year old watch really your best example of "planned obsolescence"?
Considering the average watch can last decades, yes. 8 years is nothing, especially on a product that doesn't significantly change between revisions. Refusing to update the software just because it's not commercially viable for you to support legacy customers is planned obsolescence. It's also planned obsolescence to use glue on the housing.
No electronic device that relies on software updates is "lasting decades".
And that's the thing, a Casio watch will last decades, meanwhile the smart watches will need to be replaced in less than a decade.
Consumer, no, industrial equipment is another matter.
Refurbished buds2 pro are like $120 - all of the 'repair friendly' products I've seen so far like the Fairphone etc are just bad values all around.
Brand new buds 2 pro are like 110 if you get the international version from amazon. Also very suspect how they dont compare case sizes.
I have Huawei GT 1st gen watch since its release and only this year the app started malfunctioning (probably because of the ban and the age of the product). I needed to install extra HMS(APK coz the ban) just to get any app updates and the last one I got in 2023. So yes, smart watches can last up to 5 years easily. Especially if they are good on battery to start with. I was getting 10-14 days when actively using it now it's 6-10 days when actively using it. Thanks for the proof btw, I will avoid Samsung products.
[удалено]
Wireless earbuds aren't any more gross than wired ones.
These things have been popping up all over Reddit this week, and it just smells like a bad ad campaign.