Unpopular opinion: I love wireless headphones and earbuds. I use them exclusively for many years now and I can’t imagine going back to wires.
I’d agree with you if it wasn’t for the lack of replaceable batteries. Waiting for my first type-c earphones with ANC (that will not be very good). Hopefully it will work as long as my 3.5 JBLs…
Can’t argue with that. Batteries should be replaceable.
I’m using a Arctis Nova Pro Wireless set that has replaceable batteries.
I’m back to running a stand alone audio player again…welcome back early 2000s!
It turns out that my old iPod Nano still works perfectly.
Any advice on what’s good?
I grabbed an Echo Mini as others have mentioned. For the ~$50 or whatever it costs it does what I want. It’s small and weighs next to nothing. If your music library is gigantic you might need more than one micro sd card as it has a limit of 8,191 songs. If you’re one to constantly change your music the interface might not be the best. I mostly use it as background music while working on stuff. So shuffle suits me fine.
I have the Innioasis Y1 which is regarded as a starter DAP. The Fiio Snow Sky Echo Mini is the go to DAP for new people. The HiBy R1 is high rated as well.
A lot of people will tell you “just use an old Android phone”, but am in the party that thinks having an app store takes away what a DAP delivers and that’s freedom FROM connectivity. No ads. No algorithms.
You don’t need to even have an appstore installed to make an old phone be a decent DAP. The real issue IMO is that while some of the older Android phones had some decent DACs, but they couldn’t power anything much more demanding than ear buds which any decent DAP can do just fine. Also a DAP battery will last many times longer.
Thanks! Both Snowsky Echo/Echo Mini and Innioasis Y1 are on my list of potential buys. Do you find any minor annoyances with it?
Yeah I want something dedicated to music, without anything else.
Yeah, sometimes songs that I’ve labeled in MP3 tagger don’t show up with an artist. It’s just <UNKNOWN> but that’s only occasionally. I can fix it too. Turning it off can be a pain, you have to go through the menu to do it. Other than that it’s pretty easy. I put a theme on it that makes it looks like the iPod OS.
I can attest to the Echo Mini. Most people will never need a better player in terms of sound quality.
How’s the music management? I heard it got some updates making it better to scroll bigger libraries lately
Me too, but only because the fuckers stopped putting jacks on decent phones.
I’m not a huge fan of adapters but USB-C to headphone(2.5mm, 3.5mm, 4.4mm, etc) exist.
They exist, but they suck (I’ve bought so, so many). Ironically, the best one to use for Android is made by Apple and it still kinda sucks. Not to mention you can’t charge while using them.
With those USB-C to Headphone jack dongle adapters, where’s the DAC? My (aging, days from replacement) S10e has a headphone jack, and thus a built-in DAC. Apple’s 30-pin connector had pins for stereo analog audio, it’s how speaker docks worked. Can’t say about the Lightning connector, but I know USB-C doesn’t have analog audio pins. Unless there’s some standard I don’t know about that repurposes some of them that all devices use. Or, is the dongle a USB sound card with a tiny little DAC and amp built in which is probably small, underpowered and very cheap?
It can actually be both ways, most USB-C to headphone jack dongles have a tiny DAC/amp circuit built in (they are really tiny and cheap), but there is actually a method for sending audio over USB-C that some phones can use. The latter method is usually fairly device or product line specific, I’m not sure if it is an actual standard or not.
I have a few for various headphone sizes and mine all seem fine. Wireless charging still works which my phone goes in a magnetic stand with it anyway. That all being said, I still just use a stand alone player for audio. That way I can still use my phone and don’t get the random phone noises on top of the music.
Only one of my headphones (I own a lot, it’s an expensive rabbit hole) that isn’t a pair of ear buds or IEMs can be powered by a phone or dongle, and I bought that pair specifically because the Nintendo Switch headphone output was super anemic. I have to use a stand alone DAP or stationary amp for everything else.
I own a few myself…
AKG Q701, K550
Audeze EL-8(closed), Mobius
Hifiman HE-560
Sennheiser HD-650
Phillips Fedelio X1
Beyerdynamics DT880(600ohm)
Sony 1000XM2, MDR-V700DJ
Focal Spirit Classic
I own quite a few of those! I leaned a bit heavier into the higher end of the Beyer and Hifiman lines as I prefer their house sound. Many of those you mentioned won’t do well from any dongle I know of. They “work” technically, but they won’t sound right or loud. The Sonys, Focal, AKG K550, and Phillips X1 are probably OK. It’s odd just how well even the high end Focals do from low power output. The Q701, HD650, DT880-600 and HE-560 are all too demanding for any phone or dongle I have ever used, most DAPs too to be honest. Technically I have the AKG K712 not the Q701, but they are mostly just a tweaked later version of the Q701 with nicer pads.
man i don’t know where these luddites are buying their headphones. you can get very reasonably priced buds and mobile phone and live in the future
i think this is more a fashion and audio “hifi” wankery
So can they start putting headphone jacks on phones again? I miss it almost every day
I use wireless for sports, wired for gaming/audiobooks.
I bought Xiaomi phones for many years just because they had headphone jacks and IR blaster while other brands got rid of them.
I love wired headphones until the catch on a desk chair arm and rip off my head
I have to charge enough things in my life already.
Best of both worlds, cheap $20 Bluetooth “necklace” with wired earbuds so I don’t lose them!
Bought a second hand LG when Bluetooth was still in the earlier stages. The thing is still kicking today.
Pros: The Skullcandy ones have built in Tile so even a ham-fisted gibbon like me can actually find them around the house/car.
Cons: Expensive. Battery doesn’t last all day. Mics are shit for calls. Constant re-pairing due to needing to switch between 5 devices. Random disconnecting.
Back in the day skullcandy was said to be overpriced and not very good (but good looking). Try Sennheiser if you want something sturdy and good sounding (but quite boring looking)
Yeah, they’re acceptable.
I had plenty of Sennheisers back in the days of actually having a 3.5mm jack to plug into. Shouldn’t have tried other things really.
Acceptable only? Is it because of the looks?
Looks are fine, it’s just things that get annoying. One sometimes doesn’t charge. They have a touch panel on each one so you’re forever changing things. Sound quality is just ok - not a problem, just not a wow.
Ah ok, I have the wired ones so no buttons or such, and my closed HD ones was like you say, good but no wow, the open ones, like the 598 with a good DAC are very very good sounding IMO.
Weird how I never had issues with disconnecting, even though I’m using BT headphones since it was humanly possible, and I tried dozens different models and companies. I wonder what the difference is
