But they did tangle all the time. That was annoying.

All these people saying they like wireless earphones are completely missing the point. Devices with headphones jacks can do both. Taking away the headphone jack means you have to rely on wireless earphones, which have all the issues the post describes.

It also destroyed the "pass the aux cord" when driving with friends.

"Hey, I want to show you a song. Pass the aux cord."

Plugs

Plays

Now:

"Hey, I want to show you a song. Let me connect to your car's Bluetooth."

"Oh, I can't while the car is driving. Can you pull over for a minute?"

"Which submenu was is it in? Bluetooth or Settings?"

"Do you mind if I remove one of the devices already connected?"

"Oh, it just auto-connected to your phone instead."

"Here, I'll just send you a link."

"Your phone locked. Can you enter your password again?"

"Oh, you don't have [streaming service] premium? We'll have to sit through an ad first."

What do you mean used to? I still do. IEMs with replaceable cables are nigh on indestructible.

I've thrown away so many headphones because the cable frayed though. There's always some downsides.

I didn't believe the hype about wireless headphones until I bought some with noise cancelling and all that for around $130.

Pros:

1 - You don't realize how "tethered" you feel on older headphones until you really try to use wireless headphones. There's a certain freedom you feel when you realize you can place your phone on a hotel table but lie down in bed.

2 - Noise cancelling and noise passthrough is a transformative experience when travelling or find yourself abroad. Airports are much easier to feel relaxed in when 80% of the noise or so can be filtered out as you wait for your flight to board. Additionally, the flight experience is less annoying (no engine drone gets through, even passengers can mostly be ignored) but you still have the option for pass through if someone absolutely needs to talk to you.

3 - Many of these headphones come with some kind of EQ feature, which can occasionally mean that you get speakers with more tunability and thus slightly better bang-for-buck that works globally across apps.

4 - Audio quality. Since these are expensive drivers, you're often going to get better sound quality than those cheap 30 dollar throw aways were ever going to give.

Cons:

1 - Latency. These things could never be used in professional audio situations other than listening to a pre-rendered song for quality judgements. I don't thing gaming would be nice with these either, even if I've tried (and failed) to play counter strike on these on occasion to keep noise levels down.

2 - Mic quality of the built in is lacking on my particular headphones (Sennheiser CX Plus). They're really only intended to capture the outdoor for noise cancellation IMO, not the greatest for calls or recordings. They're servicable, but it's the area I'd like the most upgrade (and it would probably improve noise cancellation features as well.)

3 - Environmental / Sustainability Concerns: Other than people just "losing" these devices with built in batteries that are bad for the environment being a problem in and of itself, there are other long-standing concerns I have about these devices. They often require proprietary non-open software to configure, meaning if the software gets delisted, you will no longer be able to configure them until someone comes up with some kind of alternative using reverse engineering (good luck). Batteries are likely to degrade over time, meaning you'll eventually end up with a worthless ear bud on the left or right and the only solution will be to throw them out. These things are often pretty bad scoring on repairability metrics, and I can't even blame the companies producing them here because they're so small.

4 - Despite passthrough being a feature, it's hard to convey to people that you can actually hear them through the device. There should be some kind of blinking light on the outside that indicates that passthrough is enabled or something.

So I actually do love these devices, but #3 of the cons is really the biggest real issue I have with them. If they're going to cost over 100 dollars, I would like to know that these things won't just become ewaste in the same way that cheap crappy wired headphones end up being as well (which sea life often chokes on or gets tangled up in.) If they costs a premium, I would really like to know that they aren't a figurative dead end when they eventually fail.

Meh. I don't miss getting the cord caught on door handles and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears!

On the other hand, bluetooth headphones never catch on a doorknob and yank out of your ears

They also didn't add an extra layer of compression between the player and your ears - because they had a fucking headphone jack and wires that could transmit audio data without compression.

Tbh I like the convenience of not being physically attached to my phone when listening to music. That said, the removal of headphone jacks from phones is a disgrace.

And they used to get tangled on everything all the time, got caught on things all the time, frayed and wore out all the time, had janky connectors that had to be jiggled to sit in just the right position to get stereo sound, and got tied in knots when you put them away not matter how carefully you wound them.

There’s a reason everyone is using Bluetooth now, gramps.

A friend was complaining that he was always losing his air pods. I told him about my awesome idea to sell a little cord that would connect them so they were easier to keep track of.

He was like, 'Dude! That's a great idea... You've got to start selling those before someone beats you to it-'

Then it dawned on him and he called me an asshat.

Last time I used wired headphones on my old phone, I was riding a bike. One of the buds slipped out of my ear and got caught in the front wheel, dragging my phone out of my pocket and smashing the screen. 10/10

These jacks are still in every other audio device. They were removed from phones to force BT usage, which Google needs for their profiling telemetry network and Apple for their Find my Device thing. God forbid someone turns BT off or even decides they would prefer a phone without BT entirely. There is no other reason and how people prefer to listen to music has nothing to do with the subject.

I got some wireless headphones and now I keep leaving my phone behind.

Because I hear music, I assume my phone is in my pocket and sometimes it isn’t.

This issue is solely the fault of capitalism. By removing choice you are forced to by a more premium product, but you're advertised it by all the supposed benefits: one less external opening on the phone, no more tangled headphones, no more dealing with headphones that only work when the cord is plugged in just right, no more chance of your headphone port going bad.

They skip over the fact that most of these issues are directly problematic because of cost cutting and designed obsolescence (aka engineered lifetimes). The opening is one thing, but headphones tangle in pockets easily because they use such thin flimsy cords. Same thing goes for cords breaking in the lining and only working at certain angles: a more robust cord would be less prone to issues.

On top of this, the entire designs of phones not having repairability in mind is the only reason that a headphone port breaking is a big deal. If they were designed to be disassembled with replacement parts being readily available, it wouldn't be an issue. They could even make the ports more robust to decrease failure rate.

What do you mean used to?

That's still what I use. I have seen people using the wireless ones though, they seem quite popular at the moment.

I'm just not sold on the idea of earphones that have planned obsolescence built in, and require Bluetooth.

My current earphones are fab, I've been using them for 10 years now, and they plug in to everything and work with everything.

Why downgrade to something that'll have a ruined battery after 2 years, doesn't work with most stuff, and let's also not forget sometimes doesn't work at all because the battery might need charging.

My wired earphones have not once refused to work for any reason, period.

We used to have transportation that didn't need gas because horse, and didn't need expensive roads because horse, and never needed an oil change becuase horse, and they cost less because horse.

The ease of pairing Bluetooth headphones lately is pretty nice as well as not having to run a wire up my shirt to avoid snagging.

I do look back kind of fondly on physically plugging in my headphones and just having it work.

I really can't stand people that make this argument, I felt the same way at first, but then I actually started using Bluetooth headphones and they are frankly just better, in almost every way.

And if you really want wired headphones still, you can just buy an inline adapter for like £2.

All the stories of people complaining about wire troubles as apologists for cell phone manufacturers read like scenes from an infomercial.

I'd gladly take a phone without a camera before I took one without a headphone jack.

There are USB-C headphones.

I was so pissed when Apple took the 3.5mm jack because I knew the rest would follow, and they did.

OTOH, now that I've gone to the dark side, I listen to music more often and enjoy it more thoroughly because I'm not dealing with tangled cables or having them accidentally yanked out of my ears, and therefore I'm more likely to have my earbuds with me. (they are now always in a pocket in my backpack) I can even fairly comfortably go to sleep with them on, which I do often.

I understand the audiophile arguments, and I'm sure that even with Buds2 Pro, SSC, and some fairly painstaking attention to EQ/DSP settings I'm leaving something on the table. I don't care about whatever that something is. I haven't enjoyed music this much and this often since I was prepubescent.

I have nothing bad to say about anyone else's choices, but the rush to shit on bluetooth earbuds gets a little "I don't even own a TV" sometimes. (for folks old enough to remember that kinda snobby trope around Y2K or so)