Do you sometimes dislike the way technology is headed?

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, Helpful Tech Witch said:

Theres also a lot of wireless audio for things that are not battery powered, which is where peak convenience is. Airplay/bluetooth is super nice to have for stationary speakers in your home.

 

1 hour ago, Godlygamer23 said:

It's useful in vehicles as well. 

I suppose if I could figure out how to play music more efficiently on my phone I'd be more interested. Maybe it's a chicken and egg situation for me. I don't see the point of Bluetooth because I don't listen to music and things that much on my phone, and I don't see the point of figuring out how to put the music and audio things I like on my phone because I don't have a good way to listen to them. I've tried Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora but didn't really like any of them. I have a handful of MP3's on my phone, ripped from my CD's, and other than that I listen to Audible audiobooks sometimes at work. I listened more to my flip phone (ZTE Cymbal Z320) as it had FM radio and not only are there some good stations here, they also have news, weather, local events, local deals, etc.

 

Right now I have three places I listen to audio, the car (with broken Bluetooth, but the AUX port and the FM/AM radio both work) my desktop computer and my wired earphones. My mom got me some Beats wireless earphones last year as a present, but they fall off and out of my ears too easily. TBH, I haven't even tried to pair them to my phone as I guess I'm too prejudice to even try and my wired Skullcandy earphones work fine.

[Issac Zachary]

27 minutes ago, Obioban said:

If I want to replay an old game, I play it from the beginning-- not the end.

I agree whole heartedly! With the exception of games that have save states or passwords (the Legend of Zelda, Metroid, etc.)

[Issac Zachary]

14 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

I think it's the overwhelming choice that we have now with these services that's the biggest problem.

That, and that choices aren't consistent.

 

If I can get this song and album from such-and-such group/singer, then why can't I get this other one? Why is this one available for off-line download listening, but not this other one? Why can I rent/subscribe to tons of movies, but if I live in the USA the only language available is English, even though the DVD's of these videos have several languages dubbed onto them?

 

I'm also somewhat offended by things that are bundled together. Why do I have to get 60 NES games on the Switch Subscription service, 30 or so I'm not interested in, but another 20 that I would like aren't available on it?

[geomac]

On 12/4/2023 at 11:11 AM, Issac Zachary said:

What would be the benefits of wireless audio (Bluetooth)? I'm still trying to figure out why people like it so much. It seems like another thing to have to charge with no benefit except if you have a boom box you don't have to keep your phone next to it. What else?

The only real benefit I care about at all is the lack of wires honestly. Now that low latency solutions are out, I have put away my wired headphones.

[Issac Zachary]

2 hours ago, geomac said:

The only real benefit I care about at all is the lack of wires honestly. Now that low latency solutions are out, I have put away my wired headphones.

I'm probably an exception since as a Janitor I spend all day stooped over toilets. This makes me feel I need to have my earphones (aka ear buds) tied off to my body somehow. I figure that I might as well as get the ones with a wire already attached. It would be kind of weird for me to get some wireless earphones and to tie a string to them so I can have that tied to my shirt buttons so my wireless earphones don't fall into a toilet.

 

That, and the cost. The cheapest Airpods are $130. My earphones are $5 to $15. I do try to take care of them, but if I lose them or break them: no big deal. I lost my Surface Pen and am very upset at myself. I don't think I'll get another one. They are way too expensive to just be buying and losing them.

[Dragonwinged]

The specific trend I don't like is not having Nything available on local storage. When you have DRM-Free music and movie files, it's only a difference in storage medium, and even mechanical hard drives are more durable than DVDs (although I wouldn't recommend testing their durability for a number of reasons. Not sure what would happen if there was a breach in a helium-filled drive.) 

 

The problem is nowadays there aren't any legitimate ways to download music and movies. Everyone wants to move to streaming, and there are far too many failure points for my liking for streaming to completely replace local copies.

 

If your internet at home fails for any reason, you can't watch any of your movies or listen to any of your music. Here's just a short list of the failure points that could break your access to streaming

 

1. The wifi or ethernet in your system breaks, either from software or hardware issues. (That's 2 each depending on how you get your internet.)

 

2. Your router could fail.

 

3. Your router's software could fail.

 

4. Your ethernet cable breaks (for whatever reason.)

 

5. Your modem fails.

 

6. Satellite exclusive: the weather disrupts your internet connection.

 

7. Your house loses power.

 

8. Your ISP experiences technical difficulties.

 

9. Your streaming service goes down.

 

10. Your content is removed due to licensing issues. (Darnit, Discovery!)

 

If you want to avoid any of these problems, well, your legitimate options are extremely limited. You could rip your own DVDs, but most of these companies see that as no better than piracy. And besides, downloading movies and music is way easier and doesn't require a disc drive.

[Erioch]

On 12/4/2023 at 8:21 AM, htimsenyawed said:

I’m pretty sure she was raised under power lines or just has a very smooth brain because the things she says… I don’t know if she realizes what she’s saying because they’re just that dumb or rude or if she’s just… Yeah, I don’t know. 

I don't know, man.  I think I'd go beast mode and start giving her very graphic details about positions, frequency and locations.  Maybe shoot her a text after every time.

[Lunar River]

Companies don't seem to make products that people want to buy.  They make products to extract the most amount of money out of people for the longest possible time.  Too many things have a subscription when they really shouldn't

Live service games are terrible and f2p doesn't exist anymore unless you want to always be behind, but they will constantly shove the virtual currency store in your face as much as they can.

 

Is the "you will own nothing and be happy about it" meme, except unironically

[smcoakley]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:34 PM, Issac Zachary said:

If I can get this song and album from such-and-such group/singer, then why can't I get this other one? Why is this one available for off-line download listening, but not this other one? Why can I rent/subscribe to tons of movies, but if I live in the USA the only language available is English, even though the DVD's of these videos have several languages dubbed onto them?

Because licensing content for streaming is very weird and complicated and expensive. Not commenting in favor or against, but this is almost always the reason.

[smcoakley]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:58 PM, Issac Zachary said:

I suppose if I could figure out how to play music more efficiently on my phone I'd be more interested. Maybe it's a chicken and egg situation for me. I don't see the point of Bluetooth because I don't listen to music and things that much on my phone, and I don't see the point of figuring out how to put the music and audio things I like on my phone because I don't have a good way to listen to them. I've tried Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora but didn't really like any of them. I have a handful of MP3's on my phone, ripped from my CD's, and other than that I listen to Audible audiobooks sometimes at work. I listened more to my flip phone (ZTE Cymbal Z320) as it had FM radio and not only are there some good stations here, they also have news, weather, local events, local deals, etc.

 

Right now I have three places I listen to audio, the car (with broken Bluetooth, but the AUX port and the FM/AM radio both work) my desktop computer and my wired earphones. My mom got me some Beats wireless earphones last year as a present, but they fall off and out of my ears too easily. TBH, I haven't even tried to pair them to my phone as I guess I'm too prejudice to even try and my wired Skullcandy earphones work fine.

It does sound like a chicken and egg problem on your hands.

 

I am a music person, I love listening to music and playing my own music as well. I'm listening to music probably 8 hours most days, so this topic matters for me personally. I mostly use a combination of YouTube Music and Internet radio (yes, the Shoutcast kind, not the Pandora kind) to listen to music, probably equally split between my phone and my computer.

 

I wouldn't go as far to say that I like YouTube Music, but it does suck the least to me. If you're open to it, give it a try. It's key feature is that it will host your MP3s that you privately own for you, and then allow you to stream them to any YouTube Music client you log in to. My preferred way of acquiring music is via DRM-free digital album downloads, e.g. Bandcamp, and then uploading them to YouTube Music for playback. I used to be big into CDs back in the day (Sony Walkman + headphones was my listening method of choice), but when I moved to an MP3 player, I realized that ripping all my CDs was a compromise and digital downloads would be better, allowing equal ownership over the tracks as a CD* but without a useless physical object. I still buy CDs though if a digital download isn't available, or the CD is cheaper for some reason.

 

I was one of the first people to sign up for Google Play Music (R.I.P.) back in the day because that was exactly what it was -- a cloud-based music player that played MP3s you already owned and uploaded. The Spotify-style streaming came later, and while I do use that functionality a lot, it wasn't my core reason for using it. YouTube Music is still not as good as Play Music was at its peak, but its finally getting a bit closer. The streaming radio stations on Play Music were still way better than what YouTube Music offers.

 

But I also understand that the current music listening landscape is in kind of a weird spot. Your options are:

• Listen to ripped CDs and digital album downloads that you started collecting 20 years ago so that now you have a sizeable library
  • Which isn't really an option for young people, or if you haven't been a lifelong music person that ever cared to buy CDs or tapes
• Listen to only a few albums because you only recently started collecting
• Use a streaming service which has a vast library, though probably not any niche albums you might be interested in (like I am)
  • Which also sucks because it doesn't pay artists well and I don't think any music streaming service is profitable
  • And you don't own anything and lose your entire library if you stop paying your subscription
• Listen to the radio (AM/FM or Internet) and let someone else choose what you will listen to
  • There's actually pros to this, I discover new artists very often this way listening to niche Internet radio stations.

With regard to Bluetooth, it is already a given for me that I'll be listening to audio a lot, in a lot of different places, and so quality headphones are a must for me, as well as Bluetooth being extremely convenient and something I use quite often. But cheap earphones suck -- I have some nice Sennheiser wired open backs when I'm at my computer, quality Bluetooth earbuds when I am out and about (currently I have a Jabra pair and a Shokz open pair, oh yeah, also some more Sennheisers), Bluetooth pairing to my Sony A/V receiver in the living room, a really nice W-KING Bluetooth boombox when I am doing manual labor and can't or don't want to wear anything, and then pair my phone to my quality stereo in my car. So lots of Bluetooth for me, though I also like wired, especially for discerning listening.

 

* I think it is still an unanswered legal question as to whether you can "own" a DRM-free digital album download you paid for as much as you can "own" a CD of digital music files, but I believe in practice it is the same for now...

[Mumintroll]

In Sweden there's a smartphone app called "BankID", which is an eletronic identification service. It's perhaps the most important app today.

But as all apps they get updated and their requirements get changed aswell, like the need for a newer version of Android OS on the smartphone or tablet. Elderly people who doesn't get new smartphones that often, and is using a still well functioning but older model are left behind.

 

BankID is private owned, and there aren't many alternatives at all, it's almost like a monopoly. There is a supported version that can be used on Windows, but it doesn't work everywhere like the version for smartphones. The state does not provide any eletronic id service, but there has been talk about it and hopefully it'll happen.

[Issac Zachary]

22 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

 

I'm confused by this. Is that a bank's applicaton that is used for mobile banking or is it a state requirement for... something?

I'm not familiar with Sweden, but the few countries I've been to use different things as the main way of showing identification. In the USA it's a driver's license. In Mexico its a voter's card.

 

Apparently in Sweden they've gone with an App, with the main purpose of showing your identification at banks. I suppose in every country there is also the possibility of using a passport, but not everyone plans on traveling outside of the country.

[Issac Zachary]

8 hours ago, smcoakley said:

But cheap earphones suck -- I have some nice Sennheiser wired open backs when I'm at my computer, quality Bluetooth earbuds when I am out and about (currently I have a Jabra pair and a Shokz open pair, oh yeah, also some more Sennheisers),

I've heard of the quality of Sennheiser, although I never have had the chance to hear them in person.

 

I feel my Skullcandy wired earphones sound great.

 

When I watch Linus Tech Tips and other YouTube videos on the subject I seem to get the impression that you have to pay a lot more for BlueTooth audio to get the same sound quality as analog wired audio.

[smcoakley]

8 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

When I watch Linus Tech Tips and other YouTube videos on the subject I seem to get the impression that you have to pay a lot more for BlueTooth audio to get the same sound quality as analog wired audio.

Hmm, I wouldn't necessarily say sound quality, but quality in general. There's a ceiling to how good Bluetooth audio can sound, while the ceiling for wired is way higher. The sound quality of wired audio really depends on just the drivers, while the quality of Bluetooth audio depends on codecs + DAC + drivers. But in reality the first two are basically a solved problem within the last 5 years, and probably those will not be a limiting factor on sound quality for any pair of $50+ earphones from a reputable company, so beyond that you're just paying for better hardware/UI design, and then drivers in the same manner you would be for any wired headphones.

 

Perhaps I can explain it this way: For the sound quality of the drivers themselves, generally you can pay more to get better quality on a roughly logarithmic curve. For the Bluetooth stack, it doesn't work that way; there's a floor of maybe $75 where anything above that is "good enough" such that Bluetooth is not going to be the limiting factor in quality, and below that is a real risk of the Bluetooth implementation degrading the quality unnecessarily. So a $300 pair of Bluetooth headphones is not going to get you a better Bluetooth implementation than a $100 pair -- you're only (hopefully) getting better drivers for your money.

 

The one exception that complicates things is firmware -- the manner in which the Bluetooth device manages pairing and connections, media controls, etc. This isn't related to sound quality, but it is related to whether it consistently works in a way you expect and doesn't randomly crap out, drop connections, or behave oddly. Whether a Bluetooth audio device has good firmware I feel doesn't really correlate to price much at all. Sometimes there are cheap earbuds that are super solid with no issues, and sometimes expensive ones are plagued with bugs. Really its just reviews that you can rely on, though generally reputable brands are more likely to be bug-free.

 

So does Bluetooth audio cost more to get the same quality as wired? Sort of, yeah, but it is nuanced. Bluetooth headphones may be a fixed increase in cost compared to wired, but as you go up the audio quality curve, that fixed cost increase generally gets diminished as the analog components in both become the major cost of the headphones. In practical terms, I'd say that you should be able to get really good wired headphones for $300, but you should also be able to get really good Bluetooth headphones for $350.

 

There's one exception to all of this I haven't addressed, and that is frequency response (FR). Bluetooth audio is generally aimed toward mass-market consumer appeal, and a lot of people (for whatever reason) seem to prefer headphones with a tuned FR to be more "pleasing", whether that is being bass-heavy, or dropping mid highs, etc. While there are a lot of wired headphones like this as well, there are also a lot of wired headphones that aim to have a much more flat FR that is more true to the original sound source, with maybe only very slight tweaks (either intentionally or not). Personally this is what I prefer. However, it is almost impossible to find Bluetooth headphones with a flat FR for whatever reason. If "flat FR" = "quality" to you, then yeah, Bluetooth is always going to sound less "quality" than wired because that isn't the kind of person most Bluetooth headphones are trying to please.

9 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

I've heard of the quality of Sennheiser, although I never have had the chance to hear them in person.

Unless you go for the studio/reference Sennheiser products (which aim to be as flat as a pancake, which you want for studio mixing), Sennheiser headphones tend to take a very balanced EQ that I personally really like. They're generally pretty flat, but will "sweeten" it very slightly with a small midrange emphasis. But it depends on the model. I like them because their EQs are usually very mild, and their products always seem to last forever. None of my Sennheiser's have ever broken and I still have every Sennheiser I've ever bought in great condition. I have both wired and Bluetooth Sennheiser products.

[smcoakley]

I hesitate to recommend that you buy anything specific, but if you are still curious about Bluetooth earbuds then you might look at something like the Beats Powerbeats Pro. There are definitely earbuds that have an ear loop like these that are very secure -- I would be pretty confident that something like those would not fall out of your ear while you are working. There are also other styles too that are very secure around your ear/head. My Shokz OpenFits for example are very secure on my ears without being uncomfortable at all (maybe if I were doing handstand pushups they'd fall out?). The major benefit is there is no risk of a cable getting caught on clothes, hands, objects, etc. Especially for wired, which the risk is yanking my phone out of my pocket and falling onto the floor. Cables are also a mechanical failure point over time.

[ToboRobot]

Technology tends to lose it's lustre once it becomes accessible to the general public.

Usenet was ruined by normies.
The internet was ruined by normies.
Forums are ruined by normies.

Gaming was ruined by normies.

Not sure if it's the change in community or the critical mass leads to financial incentives that ruin everything.  But once things become popular, they start to suck.

The moment my mom got a Facebook account was the instant I knew Facebook was finally and completely trash.

[Issac Zachary]

47 minutes ago, smcoakley said:

I hesitate to recommend that you buy anything specific, but if you are still curious about Bluetooth earbuds then you might look at something like the Beats Powerbeats Pro. There are definitely earbuds that have an ear loop like these that are very secure -- I would be pretty confident that something like those would not fall out of your ear while you are working. There are also other styles too that are very secure around your ear/head. My Shokz OpenFits for example are very secure on my ears without being uncomfortable at all (maybe if I were doing handstand pushups they'd fall out?). The major benefit is there is no risk of a cable getting caught on clothes, hands, objects, etc. Especially for wired, which the risk is yanking my phone out of my pocket and falling onto the floor. Cables are also a mechanical failure point over time.

Thank you for this and the previous post!

 

I think the Beats that I was given are possibly the Powerbeats Pro. They have an ear loop. I should try them I guess, as I gave them to my wife but I don't see her using them. I am still concerned about the loop because since I wear glasses I tend to dislike a second object on top of my ears. This includes headphones instead of earphones (earbuds) since the pad usually presses my glasses' frame into the side of my head causing pain within a certain amount of time. (I was trying some cheap Bluetooth headphones simply because they also included an FM radio inside the headphones to make up for my mistake of buying a smartphone without FM radio). But then again I haven't even tried the Beats, so I'm being prejudice here. I'll try them and see.

 

I did have a terrible problem with my Skullcandy wired earphones being yanked out of my ears. My solution is I place the cable under my shirt. The 3.5mm plug end comes out between my pants and shirt. Where the two earbud ends come out I wrap the wire once or twice around the top (actually second to top) button of my shirt and button it. That works for me, but you are right that there's still a chance of them getting pulled out.

[Issac Zachary]

What's a "normie?"

[smcoakley]

2 hours ago, htimsenyawed said:

I switched the tips of the AirPods Pro to a memory foam tip, and they stay in my ear much better and create a better sound seal.

Yeah, foam tips stay in much better and overall just work better, except they're a bit harder to clean. That's what I use on my IEMs when I play guitar (a totally separate use case I did not mention). If foam shoved into your ear canal doesn't bother you much that's also something worth trying.

 

3 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

I am still concerned about the loop because since I wear glasses I tend to dislike a second object on top of my ears. This includes headphones instead of earphones (earbuds) since the pad usually presses my glasses' frame into the side of my head causing pain within a certain amount of time.

I can't speak directly to this because it will be your own personal comfort, but I also wear glasses and not all headphones or earbuds are comfortable. Pleather-style headphone earcups tend to bother me for long periods, so my daily driver uses velour cups which I can wear for a long time with no issue. Also check the clamping pressure.

 

I thought that ear loops would bother me too, but at least in the case of the Shokz OpenFit specifically I can't even feel that they're there after 5 minutes. Probably because the ear loop portion that rests on the top of your ear is a very soft, thin, and flexible silicone. I would probably avoid plastic or hard rubber loops, or loops that are too thick.

 

There are also earbud tips that have "wings" that rest in the folds of your ear to keep them in place better. Those never worked for me but that's also something you could try.

3 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

What's a "normie?"

Slang that essentially refers to "an average person", someone who uses or participates in something without being an early adopter or someone who's not passionate about said thing. Generally a slight negative connotation to it.

[Mumintroll]

20 hours ago, htimsenyawed said:

 

I'm confused by this. Is that a bank's applicaton that is used for mobile banking or is it a state requirement for... something?

 

It is an eletronic ID card, which you can use to ID yourself when logging into a site that requires that you login as yourself, with social security number. For example if I want to declare tax I can do so by logging into the tax agency using BankID, or if I want to renew a recipe for a medicine I can login with BankID to our health department center and write a request there for new medicine. If you want to pay a parking fee you usually have to use that parking company's app, and with it you need to login using BankID. Also if I buy something online I might be promted to ID myself with BankID when buying (like buying a game from Steam actually).

 

Why it's called BankID is that the bank you have handles the identification process. The app itself is downloaded from BankID's site but the actual eletronic ID it handles is taken care of by whatever bank you're a customer in.

 

And yes we do have normal ID cards, passports and driver licenses aswell.

But we're heading towards where every service is handled by logging into a site on your pc or smartphone, using BankID.

Doing a telephone call to make a doctor's appointment is much less supported nowadays. 

[Issac Zachary]

Another thing I don't like about technology is how easy it's getting to lose expensive stuff. We have a lot more things than before and they are all getting smaller for the most part (except TV's).

 

I was going to try my Beats earphones, but I've looked all over and can't find them.

 

I lost my Surface pen and have no idea where it is either. And that's after finally buying rechargeable AAAA batteries and a AAAA battery charger for it. I don't have anything else that uses AAAA batteries.

 

I did once buy some (wired, Wicked brand) earphones once that were over $100. I used them once and lost them.

 

To not lose my phone I use it with a wallet phone case. And to not lose my earphones I keep them always with my keys. Keys and earphones in one pocket and phone/wallet in the other. Mind you the Beats come in a pretty big case. I'm not sure I would be comfortable carrying that around with my keys.

[ToboRobot]

1 minute ago, minvancemyer said:

I don't have personal opinions, feelings, or preferences as I am a machine learning model created by OpenAI. My responses are generated based on patterns and information present in the data on which I was trained. Therefore, I don't experience emotions or hold subjective views on the direction of technology.

However, discussions about the ethical, social, and economic implications of technology are common. Some people express concerns about issues like privacy, security, job displacement, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. Others are excited about the positive advancements technology brings, such as improved healthcare, communication, and accessibility.

Public perceptions of technology can vary widely, and conversations about the responsible development and use of technology are ongoing. If you have specific concerns or topics related to the direction of technology that you would like to discuss, feel free to provide more details, and I'll do my best to provide relevant information or perspectives based on the data available up to my last training cut-off in January 2023.

 

 I dislike this direction.

[Issac Zachary]

7 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

 I dislike this direction.

This is hillariously ironic! 

[Issac Zachary]

On 12/7/2023 at 1:05 PM, smcoakley said:

I can't speak directly to this because it will be your own personal comfort, but I also wear glasses and not all headphones or earbuds are comfortable. Pleather-style headphone earcups tend to bother me for long periods, so my daily driver uses velour cups which I can wear for a long time with no issue. Also check the clamping pressure.

 

I thought that ear loops would bother me too, but at least in the case of the Shokz OpenFit specifically I can't even feel that they're there after 5 minutes. Probably because the ear loop portion that rests on the top of your ear is a very soft, thin, and flexible silicone. I would probably avoid plastic or hard rubber loops, or loops that are too thick.

 

There are also earbud tips that have "wings" that rest in the folds of your ear to keep them in place better. Those never worked for me but that's also something you could try.

Well, I finally found those Beats earphones and tried them out.

On 12/7/2023 at 8:54 AM, smcoakley said:

you might look at something like the Beats Powerbeats Pro

I didn't know what kind of Beats earphones I had, but I found out they are the Beats Powerbeats Pro. They look just like these:

Beats Powerbeats Pro Totally Wireless Earbuds Navy MY592LL/A - Best Buy

 

Anywho, this is what I found when comparing them to my cheapest-I-can-find, wired Skullcandy earphones from around $5 to $15. PS, I'm also a bit of a musician, though a bit rusty:

 

Sound quality: Beats slightly better than wired Skullcandys

I spent a good hour going back and forth between the Beats and the wired Skullcandys, but had a hard time noticing any difference between them. After a while I decided that the wired Skullcandys had a bit more bass, but not hardly that much more than the Beats.

 

Where I did notice a difference was in one particular song that had a maraca or similar instrument going, it was noticeably clearer on the Beats when comparing back and forth. But other than that they didn't sound different to me.

 

So they may be a slight bit better than the wired Skullcandys, but I don't feel that the Beats are anywhere near 20 times better, even though they cost 20 times the price compared to the Skullcandys.

 

Comfort: I can't decide which is better

To be honest they weren't bad at all once I got them on as I barely noticed they were there, even with glasses. Getting the loops around my ears was a bit tough, but not any harder than fishing a 3.5mm jack down the inside of my shirt. Maybe with practice I'll get used to getting them on my ears.

 

What was more of a pain was when someone talked to me as I'm used to pulling an earphone out and letting it hang off where I have it tied around the top button of my shirt. But with the Beats I would pull one out and then wasn't sure where to put it. Again, maybe they just need some getting used to.

 

The biggest problem was carrying around the case. More on that later, but I hated carrying it around in my pocket.

 

Sealing out sound: Wired Skullcandys are better

The weird thing is that I couldn't get the Beats to sit down in and seal as well as the Skullcandys. I felt like they were part way out. Oddly, when trying to push them in the sound would go quite, whereas with the Skyllcandys the deeper they're in the louder they become. Any explanation for this, why one gets quieter and the other louder the more I press them into my ear canals?

 

At any rate I could hear more of the fans and other noises with the Beats than I could with the Skullcandys. Of course this isn't a Bluetooth issue, and there are probably better Bluetooth earphones that have active sound canceling that are probably much better than anything wired. But in this case the wired Skullcandys were much better at keeping sounds out and music in.

 

The biggest pain: The batteries in the Beats

After getting to work I decided to charge my phone while listening to the Beats, since that's an advantage of using Bluetooth audio since I don't have to have the phone tethered to my body. But just a couple minutes later, about 15 mintes of total listening, the Beats made a noise and stopped working. Then I could only get one to work. I tried finding battery charge info for them on my Pixel 4a, but couldn't find anything.

 

So off I went to the car to get that earphone case I wasn't wanting to carry around. I brought it back and found a lightning charger (I don't bring chargers to work, there are plenty there) and so basically they charged along side my phone. The phone started with 32%, and when I got back it was now up to 98% (charging up to 20W over USB-C PD QC). I still have no idea how much charge the Beats got in that same time period, but back in the ears they went.

 

About 3.5 hours later the Beats died again, whereas my phone still had 77% left. So the rest of the day I used my $10 wired Skullcandy earphones.

 

Crackling and cutting out: What's going on with the Beats?

There were three times the Beats cut out and cracked for a short period of time. I have no idea why. It was as if my phone were far away in another room, but in reality my phone was right there in my pocket. But it only happened three times in three and a half hours for a couple seconds.

 

Conclusion:

Maybe I'm just prejudice, but I'm not sold on these, even though they were given to me for free. I might try them again after making sure they have a full charge, but if I have to carry the enormous case around and charge them two or three times a day, then forget it, they wouldn't be worth the hassle, for me anyhow.

[Donut417]

39 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

A wire will always sound better than Bluetooth.

I disagree. My Sennheiser HD4.40 sounds a shit load better even on Bluetooth than my Corsair Void gaming headset.