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wired or bluetooth?? sound quality?

Sunnybaker

Sunnybaker

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
do Bluetooth headphones sound as good as wired headphones? Also do Bluetooth headphones actually play in stereo? I'm looking for over ear headphones sound quality is very important to me, as is build quality. I'm looking aroundFor headphones in the $200 price point area...New or used
 
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First, you do know what Bluetooth is, right? It's a low speed protocol best suited to mice and keyboards. It's been "stretched", fiddled and tweaked to reasonably transmit digital audio. Despite all the various codecs today, it is still a compromise. Sound quality? That's a matter of taste, skill, acuity and experience. Some folks enjoy all things audio via bluetooth and the convenience suits them just fine. Headphone listening again has it's own set of parameters relating again to those same qualities I mentioned before.

At the basic level, connecting wired to your source will produce that ephemeral "best" sound. Bluetooth, like MP3 will use a lossy compression scheme to fit the available bandwidth. If your source is standard Redbook, 16/44. bluetooth will "step on it" whereas wired from your DAC/headphone amp does not alter the sound. You may or may not notice the difference, again, depending on your taste, skill, acuity and experience.

I don't know what an "Ashley" is, sorry.

Good luck
 
Do you need mobility when you’re using headphones? Or will you generally be in one place?
 
Most dedicated Bluetooth headphones or Iem's don't have very good dacs or electronics built in. They also don't have the best high resolution codec which is LDAC by Sony.

Now if you buy a Bluetooth receiver such as an earstudio es100 or fiio btr5 to use with your favorite cans or Iem's things get much closer to wired.

The es100 has dual akm4375 dacs and the bare minimum in the signal chain, 3.5mm and 2.5 balanced output. It has a clear detailed sound with space and imaging that shouldn't come from a device so cheap and small.


I know it's hard to believe it can sound so good but I've been rocking my original one daily for three years and I'm going to be buying another soon for back up and to leave attached to my main setup.



https://www.amazon.com/EarStudio-ES...&sr=8-3#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
 
I prefer bluetooth headphones, but I use them mostly when I'm on my stationary bike and don't want to risk getting tangled up in the cord. The sound is fine, AFIC.
 
BT 5.0 is pretty darn good!

I think BT 6.00 is in the works which will that much better in transmission and use of power.

Q
 
Sunnybaker said:
do Bluetooth headphones sound as good as wired headphones? Also do Bluetooth headphones actually play in stereo? I'm looking for over ear headphones sound quality is very important to me, as is build quality. I'm looking aroundFor headphones in the $200 price point area...New or used
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For a given price, a wired headphone will always sound better, assuming appropriate amplification (i.e. better than the phone jack on your phone, assuming it has one). If sound quality is your only deciding factor, go with wired.
 
I do like BT headphones for their convenience.
However, it doesn't sit well with me that when the internal batteries fail, in most cases they need to go into the garbage. Wired headphones have other ways of dying, of course. But I get a little bit of "enviro activism" going on when I consider BT headphones.

I have Samsung Galaxy Buds+ for when I'm at work or riding a bike or motorcycle. All of my other headphones are wired.
 
made in china said:
I do like BT headphones for their convenience.
However, it doesn't sit well with me that when the internal batteries fail, in most cases they need to go into the garbage.
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Most of the good rechargeable headband headphones can be repaired by anyone who has familiarity working with small electronics. Usually it's not that complex. In-ear phones are a different story.
 
swechsler said:
Most of the good rechargeable headband headphones can be repaired by anyone who has familiarity working with small electronics. Usually it's not that complex. In-ear phones are a different story.
Click to expand...

Yeah the ear bud style are pretty much disposable. However, they also represent a fraction of the waste fullsize BT headphones would be.
Nowadays, it is more common than not that most new consumer electronics are designed intentionally unserviceable.

If you did crack them open, most no longer contain standard form, name-brand batteries. Most of them are foil-pack polymer li-ion. You can find batteries online, but there's no telling the quality or shelf age of them.

OTOH, we do have 1 pair of BT headphones kicking around, 8 years old now and they work great still. So, maybe I'm just being too pessimistic!
 
Lavane said:
Doesn't better wireless besides Bluetooth exist?
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There are still a few analog wireless headphones on the market, but AFAICT, in the consumer realm, these are all old models whose quality is lackluster at best.

ETA: looks as if the Sennheiser RS-175, while several years old, is a good quality non-Bluetooth wireless headset. They claim no latency, so I assume that means that they're analog. Here's a not-so-favorable review.
 
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made in china said:
I do like BT headphones for their convenience.
However, it doesn't sit well with me that when the internal batteries fail, in most cases they need to go into the garbage. Wired headphones have other ways of dying, of course. But I get a little bit of "enviro activism" going on when I consider BT headphones.

I have Samsung Galaxy Buds+ for when I'm at work or riding a bike or motorcycle. All of my other headphones are wired.
Click to expand...


Buy an es100 and use your wired headphones with dual akm4375 dacs and ldac 990kbs Bluetooth plus you can use it as a wired USB dac with a laptop next to your receiver and still control the volume from your sweet spot with its awesome app.
Screenshot_20210228-205640_EarStudio.jpg Screenshot_20210228-205340_EarStudio.jpg Screenshot_20210228-205351_EarStudio.jpg





https://www.amazon.com/EarStudio-ES...&sr=8-3#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
 
swechsler said:
There are still a few analog wireless headphones on the market, but AFAICT, in the consumer realm, these are all old models whose quality is lackluster at best.

ETA: looks as if the Sennheiser RS-175, while several years old, is a good quality non-Bluetooth wireless headset. They claim no latency, so I assume that means that they're analog. Here's a not-so-favorable review.
Click to expand...
There are issues for sure. The 185's seem to be the best choice. I'm not one who walks around with headphones on though. I would be using the wireless for music mostly just like my wired headphones. It seems these quality wireless headphones work pretty well over all. Most of the complaints in those reviews seemed to center around fitment, construction, usable distance and and overall sound of each model. That pretty much goes for any headphone, wired or otherwise.
60 to 100 foot distance would be plenty for me. And drop outs due to a wall while walking around the house would be expected in some cases depending on how the house was built. My father in-law's house is a signal sucking black hole for everything including cell and wifi.
 
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