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Apple's EarPods Receive the Teardown Treatment
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Airline earbuds from certain airlines like Canadian Airlines are the best. I will never buy Apple earbuds since they come with the iPod anyway. The only real advantage of them is the buttons.
neat..
so is Apple slowly getting rid of the old ones in store ? as now u can buy both, or are these just "left overs" ?
I may buy these new ear pods , just to test ... If i've wasted $29, then so be it.
I can see why Apple would call then "pods", but wouldn't you have thought they could have come up with a better name ?
so is Apple slowly getting rid of the old ones in store ? as now u can buy both, or are these just "left overs" ?
I may buy these new ear pods , just to test ... If i've wasted $29, then so be it.
I can see why Apple would call then "pods", but wouldn't you have thought they could have come up with a better name ?
I just had to register and comment on this because, last week I washed my Bose IE2 earbuds, and dried them, and they still work great. I fell asleep with them in my ears, and they ended up wrapped up in the sheets for the wash that day. My iPod shuffle however, did not survive.
When you say 'higher-quality offerings', are you referring to other in-ear headphones, or headphones in general, including the most expensive over-the-ear headphones? Surely this is an important distinction to make if we're to have any idea whether Apple really succeeded with the new design.
Based on the studies showing extensive hearing loss amongst headphone users, this may not be such a bad thing. My opinion is, if you want the absolute best listening experience and you want it loud, get yourself a really good sound system and speakers.
I want to buy a pair because my apple headphones are starting to get a bit old.
I like the apple ones and im not a large auidophile.
They are the only ones that fit properly and sound good.
I hate them little stick the rubber thing in your ear kind.
I like the apple ones and im not a large auidophile.
They are the only ones that fit properly and sound good.
I hate them little stick the rubber thing in your ear kind.
Weird… Just reading this review by Engadget and they had the opposite experience:
The most notable difference, however, is how much lower you'll need to set the volume on your device. We found that we needed to raise the volume many clicks higher on the old 'buds than on the EarPods to get equal sound output -- and at that point the older buds start to noticeably distort. So the new design definitely ports the audio into your ears better, but it's not to say the effect of a louder output at lower settings is the only improvement. Cranking the volume on our various devices, we genuinely noticed the EarPods maintained a much clearer signal in comparison to the older generation. It was usually only until we started boosting our EQs that distortion and clipping became noticeable.
They are so much more comfortable than the old ones! The old ones I would always put the right one in my right ear cause it would fit better, but these feel perfect. My ears don't hurt from wearing them I'm very happy about that
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When I went to the apple store this morning they only had the new ones and the rubber kinds, no old ones.
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neat..
so is Apple slowly getting rid of the old ones in store ? as now u can buy both, or are these just "left overs" ?
I may buy these new ear pods , just to test ... If i've wasted $29, then so be it.
I can see why Apple would call then "pods", but wouldn't you have thought they could have come up with a better name ?
When I went to the apple store this morning they only had the new ones and the rubber kinds, no old ones.
lets hope that last more the 3 months...I hate when on ear bud stops working after continual use.
On the contrary, it's a much better material. Plastic is likely more durable and will last longer with sweat and such, but paper will provide a more dynamic sound. I assume the polymer coating will help with durability.
Also, when they say paper, they're not really paper like you use to print on. It's more of a composite material.
Natural materials sound better. There's a reason they don't make speakers out of metal or plastic...at least not good ones.
I bought a pair last night. The bass is better than the $70 pair I have. The fit, for me, is good. I have better filtering of external noise but do say they are not noise canceling [nor advertised as such].
I got mine yesterday. So far pretty impressed for the price and bass and tones are much improved. Defo doesn't sound as distorted when listening to higher frequencies like in the "Mighty Quinn" by Bob Dylan lol.
Obviously they aren't going to stack up to more expensive offerings that's common sense. I mean I wouldn't waste a few hundred quid on headphones by Dr Dre. I really don't like them and I think they've got too much of a hipster look about them,
Personally, I prefer to invest in larger more useful audio equipment and amps etc. for my music centre and 8-track player in my room.
Obviously they aren't going to stack up to more expensive offerings that's common sense. I mean I wouldn't waste a few hundred quid on headphones by Dr Dre. I really don't like them and I think they've got too much of a hipster look about them,
Personally, I prefer to invest in larger more useful audio equipment and amps etc. for my music centre and 8-track player in my room.
Kevlar isn't a very good speaker material really, but it's very good for marketing purposes. It's not very stiff despite its toughness and so at excursion extremes it flexes making it a less efficient piston and causing sound character changes with different volumes. B&W used paper in their larger models' bass drivers with a Kevlar midrange, their flagship speakers use Aluminium drivers.
You may own some nice speakers but it doesn't mean you know everything about the technology behind them. Paper is still used in about 95% of the world's Hi-Fi speakers, much of the time with a coating and a flashy brand name. Plastic is mainly used in the very cheapest or smallest speakers/tweeters. Paper cones don't wear out faster as the wear and tear is mainly in the surround, I've never seen a paper speaker that has suffered from "moisture or tearing" under normal use - all cone types can be abused quite easily.
Here's my company, we've won about 50 or so awards as well as many more 5-Star reviews. I've done plenty of research into these things and was only yesterday listening to one of our older paper cone models that we used to sell to shops by the pallet load in the mid-nineties, strangely enough it still works.
Paper is cheap but it doesn't mean Apple's "cheaped out".
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that's insightful.
why do the b&w speakers run kevlar vs cardboard? kevlar will deform less than cardboard.
typical stereo speakers shouldnt be subject to moisture but many of us use our iphones in the gym and while we run hence the sweaty mess.
my parents speakers (paradigm) are polypropylene - and those are 'budget' speakers . im not sure where cardboard is used in today's home theater speakers. your company makes some nice looking speakers!
those are cardboard?
Thanks!
Most of our speakers use aluminium drivers as that's what we started with - it has advantages and disadvantages that have to be engineered around, this makes it a lot more expensive to do. Our budget ranges use paper, the only audible disadvantage is less tighter tolerance due to paper variance - it actually has a nicer, more natural tone than many of the other materials. (these guys make some of the best drivers in the world, used by many big companies and only their top models are aluminium while the cheaper ones are largely paper) B&W have worked with Kevlar a long time so know its properties - the self damping is a good feature and most materials can be worked with really once you know how to use them in the design.I'm not sure how the paper will stand up to rigorous gym use, will largely depend on how the enclosure is designed and if the paper has any coating. I'd guess Apple have tested them out but who knows! The inner ear doesn't sweat at least so that's something. I'm more concerned about the black anodised body now as some reviews are stating it's wearing through in places already! I'm well aware that can happen but presumed Apple would have tested all that out, wishing I'd ordered white now!
I received my new Earpods yesterday. I did a comparison between them and the Apple in ear buds that I have that cost me $99 AU. The new ones at $35 AU sounded much better, and sit quite comfortably in my ear. I compared by playing the same songs on both my iPhone and iPad with the Earpods on one and the in ear buds on the other. I put one in each ear, and swapped them around. I listened to a wide variety of music from Enya to Sting to Robbie Williams and each time the new Earpods sounded more clearer and crisper. I am no audiophile but I do like good quality headphones and these new Earbuds are well and truly good enough for me.
I'd expect the sound quality to reflect the cost. Low cos, plastic ear buds (pods, whatever) will not sound that great. If someone wants quality, they'll purchase something from an established audio maker.
Don't see why an audiophile would even bothe with these.