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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   Edited 2yr ago   5649 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 13, 2022

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Wow, this might be the worst take. Wireless earbuds were a shockingly huge improvement for me on headphones as a product. I spend an astonishing amount of time with one earbud in use cases where I couldn't use wired headphones.

I can't really conceive of wireless earbuds being an improvement, but hey if it works for you then great. For me, there's no advantage in them. Being wireless is useless to me because in the (very rare) case I am actually moving around, my phone is on my person. So for my own usage, there's no upside and considerable downsides in the form of needing charging/connection issues/can lose them easily.

Have you tried them? Genuinely having them changed my potential uses.

No. I'm not really in the habit of spending a good amount of money on something I don't have a use case for, after all. ;)

Get cheap ones. These are 25$ and seem closest to the ones I bought five years ago

So many uses I didn't think of that wouldn't be practical with wired buds. Like driving in a convertible or shopping in a store with one in for a podcast/book without losing awareness.

The car thing kind of confuses me, because cars already have sound systems. Who is using earbuds in the car?

As for the store scenario, I don't listen to things (as in have no desire to) while I'm out and about. So that isn't something I would ever do.

Good to know that cheap ones exist though. I at least would be willing to drop $25 to try it. Most likely outcome (imo) is that they sit in my car/drawer/pocket and get no use, but $25 isn't much of a loss.

Who is using earbuds in the car?

Convertible, can't really make out a podcast on the car speakers over the wind on the highway. Which is something I never would have thought of before owning them, which is the thing: you'll find your use case after you own it.

Kind of like carrying a multi-tool. So many of the situations I use it in were things I didn't even notice before I was carrying it.

Eh, I don't think there's a good reason to carry a multi tool either. People do it and hey good for them, but I've never thought it was a useful thing to do. So the analogy actually works against you in this case.

Try the cheap earbuds, and if they work out try the Leatherman, n'est pas? But really, both those examples are things where my use of it expanded once I had it on me. Before I had them I agreed with you!

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