Wired headphone sales are exploding

This isn't a Vinyl vs CD thing where a clearly inferior technology lives on due mainly to sentimental reasons. There are a number of concrete advantages to wired headphones over bluetooth headphones.

- They don't need charging. Charging may seem like a minor inconvenience, and we're used to charging a lot of devices. However, even a minor inconvenience is still an inconvenience.

- They're harder to lose. When Apple almost immediately started selling accessories to connect their airpods together (i.e. Cables), it was pretty obvious that going completely cordless was not entirely superior.

- For an equivalent price point, wired headphones produce higher quality audio, and the top-end is a lot deeper.

- Wired cans don't need to pair, don't glitch out, don't become laggy, pair with the wrong device, etc.. Bluetooth was never really meant for use as an audio connection, and it's never really become 100% foolproof. With Apple's proclivity for proprietary standards, I'm amazed they (or others) haven't rolled their own wireless audio standard by now.

Too many android phones copied Apple and ditched the venerable audio jack, but a few kept it, and I've always insisted on it when buying phones. It's old but far from obsolete.

"The dangling cables of wired headphones are a must-have fashion accessory in 2026"

Gee, is that the kind of stuff that makes people want this, rather than actual usefulness related reasons?

I want it because I don't want yet another thing to have to charge, and because I'd want to be able to throw some cheap headphones in my backpack that I can use the one time in a month that I actually need them in combination with a phone (which of course isn't possible anymore today)

Also, why are ANC headphones today worse for gaming than in the year 2018 when they supported aptx that had less lag? Technology is going backwards?

I'm the trendsetter. I've never stopped using wired headphones and, after being made fun of for years despite much better audio quality, cost, simplicity and reliability, the rich finally decided to imitate me. Never let go of your convictions!

Audio engineer originally and a current audio software.

In the pro audio, wireless was never a thing with an exception of live shows where you’d might want to be free on stage but avoid stage monitors.

Notice that while Apple made everyone ditch the lovely 3.5”, on the MacBook Pros they’ve actually kept it and *improved* it.

As this is HN, I’ll focus on technical aspects I didn’t notice in the article.

- Active Noise reduction

While the article suggested the battery free magic of analog headsets. Flights are where the active noise reduction headsets shines. Active cancellation isn’t needed for studio environment but on the go it can certainly make your listening more pleasant.

- Hybrid devices There are several manufacturers with classical headset designs that also includes wired support with all modern features. This is a good balance in my opinion for benefiting from both worlds.

- Latency

Especially Bluetooth, our current consumer wireless is buffered and this latency is too much for creating music. Products such as GarageBand, Logic or FL Studio won’t be that useful for tracking with Bluetooth.

- Quality

Indeed, analog 3.5” audio is uncompressed vs Bluetooth. But it doesn’t mean the audio is superior for listening just because of that transition. Our modern devices are still mostly digital those days so there is DAC that takes those bits and converts them to analog (most of it today is done well as those chips are common) and the other step is the analog amplification. Audiophiles usually invest a lot in the headphones amplifier. Most android devices in the past were mediocre in that sense.

So while wired is a trend, the “dongle” of USB-C to convert the audio is still a major part of the quality we end with.

- Sharing is caring (my personal take)

The biggest frustration I feel with Bluetooth is that it’s now nearly impossible to use multiple headphones for listening. In the old days, you had a simple splitter and as long as both headsets were the same impedance, you can even have 4 people listening to the same content easily.

With Bluetooth, only Apple addresses this in a very limited manner with a lock in to specific models and up to 2 devices and no video calls or live audio support.

My Bluetooth headphones are great and very rarely have any glitches. I use wired headphones only when listening to high-resolution lossless music (using the right hardware). I would guess the fact that some streaming platforms have these now is also a contributing factor to the rise in popularity of wired headphones.

Sony WH1000XM5 headphones are my daily driver, mainly Zoom calls and music. I'm generally pretty happy with them, but one big gripe I have is when I'm on a call and briefly take off my headphones to e.g. chat with someone in the room, there is like a 90% chance they stop working and I have to reconnect them.

It happens so often I even wrote a script to switch to the MacBook internal speakers then back to the headphones.

I've used wired headphones before (and the Sony even has a wired option), but I didn't like how the cord was constantly getting the the way of my arms.

edit: Another big gripe is with the Bluetooth codec itself, and how the quality changes depending on if the mic is active.

Maybe I am just old, but I have absolutely no idea what this passage is about -- why would people be fiddling with Bluetooth on a date and why would it cause them to forget their network?

>"Bluetooth does not work," Kravitz said in a recent interview, and it's not just headphones, but Bluetooth connections in general. "It's ruining important moments. Imagine the amount of times that you're with someone on a date, you're trying to set a vibe, and then you have to forget the network. On a date!"

Perhaps not related to the article but I find it puzzling that Bluetooth in 2026 still sounds like a fax machine when you use the mic too. That and a much too high latency in general.

One segment I wish came back are bluetooth inear headphones wired together (untrue wireless, i guess).

There are some models but none really explore their possible advantages (battery, ux, single signal source).

I lost single wireless earpiece multiple times making the rest useless. This won't happen with wire. With wire its also so much easier and quicker to take them off they will just hang around your neck. There is reason why many workers in loud environments prefer earplugs wired together.

My impression is that apple hyped the airpods so well that people forgot about other possibilities. And when Google included cool headphones with cables people thought they have to cut them… that was when industry decided its dead segment.

Lots of good theories here, but none saying "TikTok", which I think is the answer.

TikTok is a big reason wired headphones are popular. AirPod microphone quality is spotty and improving the quality is non-deterministic. With wired earpods, people put the mic next to their mouth and get above-average audio quality.

Like the article says, wired headphones have also become a fashion statement akin to vinyl culture.

It's amazing how people will jump to something new just because it's there and it's being promoted.

When wireless headphones came out, I looked at my wired ones and asked the simple question: is a tangling cable worse than bluetoth pairing and having to keep yet another thing charged? My answer was no, so I kept using cheap wired ones.

A few years later, now that makes me look rich. Or something.

Actually, a week ahead of the BBC, my sister informed me wired headphones are making a comeback. With a smug grin I told her, "Comeback? It never left my side."

I've had to ally myself with a brand I've once sworn off just to get a flagship model Android with a headphone jack. Killing Reader is a greedy betrayal (they were pushing us onto Plus, the whole social web thing) but removing headphone jacks from Pixels is a cowardly betrayal! Eyeing you too there, Samsung. You and Google both have made it extremely difficult to maintain a modicum of principle in today's consumer landscape! You made me justify my purchase with a utilitarian "Better the jacked devil than the blue-toothed one".

(And before you ask, I only generally buy flagships because I upgrade my phone like, every five years, and in my experience flagships are just more bang for buck. YMMV tho.)

Anyway, honestly, wired is not perfect. Wired and wireless each have their inconveniences it's just that I'm more willing to put up with the inconveniences of wired. Wired connections have known failure modes, something which I really value in tech. I have a Sony WH-1000XM3 which can work both as wired and wireless and I love it for that.

Long live wired connections! Here's to a future with cheaper flagship models with a headphone jack!

Can someone recommend USBC earbuds with good ANC? Sometimes I’d love to avoid battery and interference concerns of Bluetooth, but noise cancellation became a must-have for me.

so many replies here on HN, this post also have the vibe of AI generate comments. medium-long format, try to cover too much of the pectrum, miss a punch line or a main idea. just my 2c

Please let this mean that they'll start bringing back the headphone jacks to phones. usb-c is too unstable, and I prefer not having to deal with charging more devices and with pairing shenanigans when switching devices.

My wired headphones never run out of battery. They also don't drop the connection if my pocket is at the wrong angle from my ears.

While using wired headphones, my spouse's car never steals my audio when it starts or pulls into the driveway. Also, I can join a meeting seconds before it starts without spending a few minutes scrambling to verify that my BT headset will allow me to hear/be heard.

I never got on board with wireless headphones.

* Having to charge them is a PITA

* Having to pair them is a PITA

* Having more points of failure is a PITA

* Paying more is a PITA

On the other hand:

* Wires are fine

Headphones were a solved problem. I had 20 years ago some high end IEM that i used back in the days on on so called mp3 players - those were pocket sized music players - and since apple released the airpods and bluetooth headphones were the new standard audio quality never recovered to the state we had two decades ago

I do wonder if this is in part to Spotify educating people with their very much in your face notifications when you set your player to lossless quality mode. They inform you bluetooth won't pass the signal with enough fidelity and to go wired.

I don't think many people thought their expensive Airpods/Bose/Sony were not capable of handling lossless and may feel left out or missing something.

They can focus on being pure transducers rather than being DACs and power amps as well.

The elephant in the room is "chi-fi". There's been a huge growth in small Chinese companies with unusual names making amazingly cheap, yet great-sounding over-ear headphones, IEMs, and earbuds within the past few years, and the vast majority of these are wired.

I've had a set of Etymotic SR4s for years, I just replace the cable every 1-2 years. I love them to death, they're extremely flat though, so they make a version with bumped bass if that's your thing.

If someone made a cable with a mic on it for them I'd probably buy 10--it's pretty annoying to switch to Apple earbuds for calls, but whatever.

I have two wireless sony headphones for handling the battery issue. So yesterday before 5mins to my meeting, I plugged in one and it was out of juice. I plugged in the second one and it was also out of juice. Mind you, I was travelling and hence didn't follow the usual charging cadence I follow.

I charged my wireless headphone for 5 mins and took the call and it went out of juice mid way through the call. I had to run to find a free conference room in the office which was present since it was friday.

I also often connect my wireless headphone through the weekend and not know that it is still connected since friday with my work mac. Wired solves all of this.

Thanks to this article, I just ordered a Apple Earpods USB-C 5 mins ago in Blinkit. It is going to be delivered in another 5-10mins. Good bye wireless. I will use it for work with my Mac and my personal Samsung phone.

Edit after 4 mins: Earpods Delivered!

I went back all the way to tape. It’s surprising how well it still works 30 years after it became obsolete.

Obviously with wired headphones, because tape players don’t do bluetooth.

I got a pair of AirPods Pro, paid for by a past employer, and it's the only Apple product I like. I'd even give some of my own money to Apple if I had to buy another pair.

When I'm wearing wired earbuds, the feeling of getting the cord caught on something and having the earbuds violently yanked from my ears is one of the most annoying things, like a slap in the face.

Plus I like being able to put my phone wherever I want, when I'm listening to podcasts while doing yard work. The phone stays in the house, or on a patio table, not in my pocket where pruning shears or dirt will get to it.

There are various other situations where having wires going to my ears is annoying or impossible.

Dear Sony, please start making the MDR-XB450 again. Lovely wired headphones that for some inexplicable reason Sony discontinued a few years ago.

I wonder what percentage of the people driving this trend have either only had AirPods (they make me dizzy, and I think the sound quality is terrible), Beats (even worse) or no-name $20 bluetooth headsets.

I have a nice high-end set of Sennheisers that cost ~ $150, and they're much better than my old wired set (both in-ear, both noise isolating, similar prices).

The bluetooth ones win because they eliminate cable noise. I can actually jog with them. In quiet rooms, they're very comparable, except the bluetooth set has a built in EQ, which works around the fact that iOS / Android still inexplicably do not let you adjust treble and bass.

The bluetooth headset market has been stuck in this weird spot where fashion mostly dictates. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that fashion now dictates wired headsets.

Many pro wired comments here about quality which can be classed under the category “most people cannot tell the difference”. You simply cannot compare the considerably greater convenience of wireless to wired when on the go. Also, any decent wireless over the ear headset allows for wired use when out of battery. That’s hardly a game changer

Will wired speakers make a come back? Stereo separation vs mono pods?

For me AirPods are one of the greatest products I’ve ever owned. I resisted them for years and recited the usual tropes about wired being better. But after being gifted a pair years ago, I realized how wrong I was.

I spend a lot of time at the gym or walking with headphones in and music, podcasts, or audiobooks on. It’s so much better not having any wires when you’re moving. I can’t imagine doing these actives anymore with wired headphones.

Battery life, pairing, charging, audio quality, and other complains are all non issues for me, but I’m also no audiophile. They work incredibly seamlessly inside the Apple ecosystem.

I've never had a pair of headphones with a cable connection that survived more than 2 years. Can't say that about the Airpods Max.

Like, I have opinions about high-end headphones based on how easy the cords are to replace. That shouldn't be the case.

I was a discrete headphone amp guy, just to situate myself in this market. I didn't expect to get good wireless headphones and think "I'm never going back", but that's precisely what happened.

I bought a pair of IEMs. A while back, the cable broke, and I was able to repair by just buying a new cable.

Also, I enjoy not having another device to charge. I recently have been wearing a traditional Casio watch more often instead of my smartwatch.

For me, using Bluetooth headphones with my (Samsung) phone is smooth and trouble-free. The experience is miles better than wired headphones, and I would never go back. Meanwhile, connecting to my TV with Bluetooth is an exercise in pure frustration.

So it seems to me like the problem isn't Bluetooth, it's shitty implementations of it.

And it's not just cheap devices. My TV is a fancy LG OLED. For the price I paid it should handle Bluetooth just fine.

It's a real shame. When Bluetooth works, it's awesome, but a lot of people have had their opinions tainted by bad devices.

I've considered the move to wired not for quality but for the sad state that Bluetooth pairing headphones has become. Theycan't just be headphones anymore; They require their own app and pairing protocol. They want 19 different touch points and permissions to implement a handful of never used features I get people being frustrated at why they can't just do what copper did for the last century.

Wired headphones just work, unlike the bluetooth ones.

An alternative to a wired dongle is a high-quality bluetooth amp, e.g. from Fiio. It's reliable, keeps your phone free from cables, but you can keep using your high quality wired headphones.

Backlash is probably wrong. There was some hype around wireless technology, but that always fades eventually. You can see this in other electronics like "smart" home appliances: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/01/half-of-smart-applia...

It seemed cool, people bought it, and then eventually many realized they didn't care about the fancy feature(s).

Except on the go, I don’t see the point for Bluetooth headphones. Due to the built in batteries that are uneconomical to replace they are essentially consumables, even high end ones like AirPods Max. Pairing and (re) connecting is a never ending pain. For less than $200 you can get a set of wired open back headphones that sound so good that unless you are in the audiophile niche they are your forever headphones. Models like Beyer Dynamic DT990 are built to last and very repairable, it just makes sense.

Every phone has a Type-C port, so why aren't headphone manufacturers following the trend?

Are Google one of the last holdouts ?

I've been on cheap Android phones and just moved from Samsung to Motorola and both have headphones sockets.

It's simple, I can buy some IEMs that sound better, cost less than a third of a barely-even-comparable wireless earbud, and roughly conforms to market standards so I can swap out the cable and tips. And I never have to charge them.

I have a pair of Airpod Pros that I use solely for audiobooks and podcasts when I'm doing chores or shopping, but the audio quality is so garbage that's all they're really good for.

here's hoping that someday headphones without pressure (e.g. active/passive noise cancelling) will make a comeback, too. But then again I think there still exist cheap wired ones without such "advanced" technology. As one woman in the article said best: "'I don't like how this feels' and we're all kind of returning to the last place we were comfortable."

Every blue tooth audio thing I've had sucked... and then stopped working altogether.

If they want to take them away, they'll have to rip my Sennheiser HD600 from my skull.

Legendary for their neutral, correct and pleasant sound, comfort, effectively forever durability, and being affordable to boot.

I can plug them to current or 40 year old hardware, and they do work. I use them with Topping DX3 Pro+[0] today.

It is no wonder they want us to instead adopt something active, crippled with bluetooth latency and dependent on lossy codecs, with a non-serviceable battery built-in.

0. https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/t...

The drivers or whatever can influence the wireless experience a lot. Apple has the best bluetooth reliability of any manufacturer I've experienced. I can be out in a field next to my house and somehow the half-asleep laptop finds my headphones instantly unless I remember to switch its bluetooth off. On my windows machine sometimes, for seemingly no reason, you will be left standing around waiting and waiting for it to find the device right next to it.

The convenience of being able to get up and walk around the house, or got out with the phone without wires getting caught makes it worthwhile though. On the other hand for stationary peripherals like mice I would never go wireless. I hate that feeling of complete helplessness to the pairing/connection lottery and the time waste of it.

My daily headphones are the Google Pixel USB-C earbuds, but they seem to be no longer made. Anyone have good recommendations for similar style USB-C headphones w/mic?

For me it's cost. I used to be able to get those JVC gummy earbuds wired, for nine dollars. Now I have to spend upwards of $20 for Bluetooth. And of course, when the battery can't be recharged anymore, I'm supposed to throw them away. Much prefer the wired headphones. Sometimes Bluetooth makes sense, But economically wired makes more sense.