I fear everyone is lying about their love for wired headphones.
For the longest time, I too was a lover of wired headphones and their compact accessibility. But that all changed two years ago when I got my first pair of wireless Beats headphones. Yes, I was late to the party, and no, I had never truly had wireless headphones prior to them. (I had owned a pair of AirPods that I used religiously every day, but one day I was on the bus and one fell out of my ear, and I never felt safe wearing them again.)
My gripe with wired earbuds begins with the fact that my father cursed me the day I was born: with tiny ears. Any off-brand earbuds –by that I mean anything not made by Apple– just don’t seem to fit my ears correctly, and they manage to fall out within minutes, no matter how hard I try to keep them there. Which means that I am cursed with using Apple’s twenty-dollar wired earbuds because they are the only ones that manage to fit correctly. Along with the fact that my phone doesn’t have an audio jack, I have to buy headphones that specifically fit USB-C.
One day, when I was trying to be financially wise, I scrolled through Amazon and stumbled upon knockoff Apple earbuds, and they were two for like fifteen dollars. “A steal!” I thought to myself. But no, they were in fact not a steal. When I first plugged them into my phone, they connected as Bluetooth headphones somehow? They also wouldn’t let me turn up the volume too loud. Anytime I tried to turn up the music past 50%, they would turn them back down, which I definitely didn’t appreciate because I need my music loud; I do not care about being potentially deaf in the future. However, I persevered through the pain and used those headphones every day until I got my Beats headphones for Christmas in December of 2024.
Using those headphones for the first time felt like I was ascending to heaven, and I haven’t looked back. Those Apple earbuds (both real and knockoff) could never compare to the sounds I hear with my Beats. The charge on them lasts for at least a full week, and I listen to music for hours at a time every single day. Wireless headphones are such a carefree experience that I have never felt with those wired earbuds.
I remember one day coming home irritated, and my headphones got caught on the handle of my bedroom door…
All I’m saying is that my Beats would never do that to me.
The wire just gets in the way of everything; it makes me not even want to listen to music anymore. With wireless headphones, I can just walk away from my phone or laptop and not be worried about dropping them. There have been a few times when I’ve forgotten that I was connected to my phone, and it dropped on the floor because I was walking away without it.
One thing I will say, though, is when I’m at work, I prefer to use my wired earbuds because one time I had to go to the freezer with my Beats and they shut down because it was too cold, so I had to work in silence for like twenty minutes, which sucked. Also, sometimes wired headphones truly help to elevate an outfit. So sometimes, they might be better than wireless headphones.
Overall, though, I think the music listening experience is better when they’re wireless, and I refuse to fall for the wired earbud propaganda.
Especially when they’re twenty dollars, because at that point I could be saving up for some better quality headphones!
Featured image by Ales Nesetril on Unsplash.
