Wired Headphones Are Retro Now

I always cary a pair of spare earphones in my bag. I don't buy new ones, I just don't throw old ones away. These earphones that used to come with smartphones were actually not that bad for listening for music and other such audio on the go. I have quite a few of them lying around so I usually clean them up, optimising the audio quality, and roll them up into a compact little bag and place them in my laptop bag, coat jacket, etc.

I'm always listening to things on the go and, at times I'd forget my earphones at home, or the bluetooth ones I have would run out of battery because I forgot to charge the battery case. At times like these, the spare ones really come in handy. The wired headphones are also better for editing video because they have very little to no latency. The bluetooth ones, no matter how good they are, always have a lag while doing video editing, which is very annoying. They're fine for watching video, but not when you have to match waveforms to audio.

They're also less harmful. There are issues of over-exposure to electromagnetic waves. The way we use these headphones these days, they weren't originally designed to be used for that long. People go to bed with them on passing these high frequency waves through their skulls for hours and hours a day. The wired alternative don't require radio waves to work, just electric signals. They still present potential harm to the eardrums if worn for too long listening to loud music, but that's a different issue.

I also think they look cool since they're now considered retro. I now use them just as frequently as the bluetooth ones. If I'm going to be sitting down, for example on the train, then I'd opt for these wired ones since I don't have to worry about the cables tangling or them being yanked out of my ears while using the phone. The wirelessness of the bluetooth ones is the only advantage they have over wired ones in my opinion. They're also only starting to match the wired ones in sound quality since the amount of data transferrable over bluetooth is still nowhere near what you can send through a wire.

The last benefit, especially if in the market to buy headphones, is that they're much cheaper than bluetooth earphones in the same league, sound quality speaking. A good compromise, though, is a good pair of headphones (cans) that have both options. I have this for video editing. I plug in the wire when editing on my computer and go blue-tooth when not. Win-win.

Peace & Love,

Adé