Bragi Unveils Wireless 'Headphone' Earbuds Ahead of Apple Event

[Michael Goff]

You clearly don't if you believe you can achieve as good a sound quality from a wireless solution. Wireless are good for convenience not sound quality.

I believe I can achieve good enough sound while maintaining a device that works better than the one that hit the concrete due to a yankee wired headset. Not the best, but good enough.
[doublepost=1473138713][/doublepost]

Very good if you have a decent set of cans and a portable dac actually. Our trains in Chicago area have quiet cars so even better! It is just simply fact that a wireless solution will never achieve the quality of a hard wired connection nothing condescending about that.

There is a difference between "not as good as wired" and the "wireless sucks" type of crap you've been pushing. "If you care about sound..."

 

[s1m]

Quality can be measured in many ways. The tone of "if you care about quality you cant use wireless" is the condescending tone.

 

[Mac 128]

wireless will never be a never be a better experience if you care about sound

Sorry, but I completely disagree. "never" is a long time. The day will come when wireless sound quality is equal to wired audio, and I'll bet it will happen within the next 5-10 years if not sooner.

That won't happen Android manufacturers don't remove features just for the sake of removing them.

I seem to recall the Galaxy Note 5 removed the SD card slot. What was the reason?

 

[ani4ani]

Same thing was said about the Floppy Disk and the CD Drive... Everyone will be over it and used to it in a couple of years when the rest of the companies drop it also.

Yep the whole world at the drop of a hat will abandon the ubiquitous headphone jack because Apple deemed it so....I don't think it will happen for years. There are dozens of examples, but imagine your next flight with no headphone jack and tell me when you think it will be gone from your inflight entertainment? Airplane mode anyone?

 

[Solomani]

0:45

TnA sells.

 

[Shirasaki]

I have been using the Dash for a while now. I have now issue with sound quality, BT connectivity is improving with OS updates. Overall I am very happy with the product. The experience of being truly wire free is great. The noise blocking is great - I can shop in the mall whilst listening to music and there could be a war going on and I wouldn't know.

But after realising no one could call you for whatever reason when taking public transport, I may reconsider my current volume limit level, which is half of max iOS could provide.

 

[Mac 128]

Yep the whole world at the drop of a hat will abandon the ubiquitous headphone jack because Apple deemed it so....I don't think it will happen for years. There are dozens of examples, but imagine your next flight with no headphone jack and tell me when you think it will be gone from your inflight entertainment? Airplane mode anyone?

Not sure what your point it ... the last flight I was on was an American Airlines flight. Their inflight seatback entertainment systems have USB ports. I can only use them for charging right now, but they should be capable of supporting digital audio with a firmware update. Heck they might even have BT built-in. I know they have a Mini Din-9 connector too for some odd reason.

Many people on the flight were using noise-canceling BT headphones with their iPhones and iPads. I was plugged into the screen with a wire, and had to unplug it overtime the middle and window passengers needed to get out. Next time I fly, I'll take my BT dongle and plug it into the headphone jack instead. It will make for a much more pleasant trip.

It's amazing, 10 years ago, there were still airlines that had those funny two prong headphone ports that required adapters. My Sony noise canceling earbuds came with four different adapters for use on the various airlines. Heck, there are planes I still fly on today that don't even have a headphone jack. I reckon they'll do what the airlines have been doing for years, upgrading their equipment as technology improves. It's amazing the number of planes that still have CRT TVs hanging from the ceiling is almost 0 now, and to think I can remember when they first installed those, and were state of the art.

 

[Solomani]

I wonder if there are any Lightning-to-audio-jack adapters in the market yet? (to allow users to continue using their existing audio-jack-headphones on newer iPhones)

 

[s1m]

But after realising no one could call you for whatever reason when taking public transport, I may reconsider my current volume limit level, which is half of max iOS could provide.

Was that using the Dash or other wireless headphones?

 

[elmaco]

What were you doing on the bus to lose them?

Not sure, I still have the case/tube, but I have a hole in one of my pockets. I probably put them there.

 

[pcmacgamer]

I believe I can achieve good enough sound while maintaining a device that works better than the one that hit the concrete due to a yankee wired headset. Not the best, but good enough.
[doublepost=1473138713][/doublepost]
There is a difference between "not as good as wired" and the "wireless sucks" type of crap you've been pushing. "If you care about sound..."

No difference whatsoever Wireless will never be as good if you care about sound. Wireless does suck if you care about sound and aren't willing to make any sacrifice in terms of sound. I do not want "good enough sound" and will not settle. You have different priorities and that is perfectly fine. If you are willing to sacrifice quality of sound for convenience. Just don't try and claim the sound quality is better than a good set of cans with a dac/amp.

Quality can be measured in many ways. The tone of "if you care about quality you cant use wireless" is the condescending tone.

Yes quality can be measured in many ways. The fact today is you will not achieve as good a sound from a wireless solution. Many people who stream 256 kbps tracks on Apples crappy ear pods won't care one bit though and that is perfectly fine.

Sorry, but I completely disagree. "never" is a long time. The day will come when wireless sound quality is equal to wired audio, and I'll bet it will happen within the next 5-10 years if not sooner.
I seem to recall the Galaxy Note 5 removed the SD card slot. What was the reason?

I will believe it when I hear it. Maybe Apple will shock me and not use a bluetooth based solution that is better than wired(they won't). Even then having to charge and longevity of bluetooth cans is another issue for me on top of lesser sound quality.

Ah yes i figured you would bring that up. Samsung made that boneheaded decision to remove the slot and after consumer backlash they put it back in next iteration. They won't make that mistake again when it comes to headphones. People have power of wallets to influence corporations. Android manufacturers will not take that risk of taking away a feature because of the backlash that will ensue from the userbase.

 

[lordofthereef]

I seem to recall the Galaxy Note 5 removed the SD card slot. What was the reason?

To see if they could get away with it. Lol. (I don't really know. And we never found out. )

 

[amirite]

No doubt! If true, this is one of the most stupid decisions Apple has made.

said everyone when they dropped the floppy

 

[ipedro]

I think new, enhanced voices may be introduced eventually and will be a feature that would lure in those who are on the "should I upgrade?" fence. Maybe not on the 7, but some day. I think we're overdue for seeing enhancements in speech synthesis.

Craig Federighi hinted as much in that interview about AI.

I have iOS 10 Beta and Siri sounds no different but Craig said that Siri is noticeably more human-like in iOS 10 and specifically cited it as one of the benefits of machine learning. Since its server side, we might still see a major improvement once they switch to the new voice synthesis — perhaps at iOS 10 launch in the Fall.

However, we're still very far from Samantha in the movie Her. It's not just speech synthesis. She laughs and has other human like voice characteristics that are still far off.

 

[pcmacgamer]

said everyone when they dropped the floppy

That is completely different as a better solution was offered. Much different than a standard that has been used since 1964 without any better options as of today.

Craig Federighi hinted as much in that interview about AI.

I have iOS 10 Beta and Siri sounds no different but Craig said that Siri is noticeably more human-like in iOS 10 and specifically cited it as one of the benefits of machine learning. Since its server side, we might still see a major improvement once they switch to the new voice synthesis — perhaps at iOS 10 launch in the Fall.

However, we're still very far from OS 1's Samantha in the movie Her. It's not just speech synthesis. She laughs and has other human like voice characteristics that are still far off.

I have the beta as well and really haven't noticed much difference. Hopefully the machine learning really helps siri. Most exciting is the siri sdk for developers so apps can now work directly with it.

 

[stanman64]

Lots of people do care.

Pun was intended.........

 

[Shirasaki]

Was that using the Dash or other wireless headphones?

Well, I use a cheap wired EarPods. But I believe noice cancelling stuff is prone to such issue, where you are unable to be aware of surroundings.

 

[dragje]

Sept 7... when people cheer for removal of a feature.

Sept 7... when people cheer for progress. The headphone jack is an ancient technique.

 

[BvizioN]

No doubt! If true, this is one of the most stupid decisions Apple has made.

In your opinion. Let me get back few years in a future to this comment and laugh my head off.
[doublepost=1473144339][/doublepost]

And, while there was a pretty good reason to drop the floppy and CD.

But you see, that's not exactly what people thought before or when these things where removed. But now that all is to damn obvious people seem to agree that there was a good reason. So maybe, just maybe some people get too attached to the old stuff and refuse to move on and except the changes!

.

 

[radus]

Is the Dash good? They look unreal but I heard complaints about them cutting in and out of signal if your phone is tucked away in a bag etc

The Dash is not good, bluetooth connection weak, sound mediocre, wearing comfort bad and easy to loose.
I had a pair, lost one (while bicycling, could not find it on the street), they did not offer a replacement one - but offered a new pair at a reduced price ... not worth it.

 

[CarpalMac]

Sept 7... when people cheer for progress. The headphone jack is an ancient technique.

I love it. Something globally universal and support by millions, possibly billions of products gets removed and not replaced by anything that wasn't already there before, but "hey, that is progress".

Age is irrelevant (the wheel still exists and is over 5000 years old, a genuinely ancient technique) and the other defensive comparisons likening it to the floppy disk are just laughable.

 

[Ries]

Given that headset is probably about four or five times the size of the Dash there is quite a difference.

Commercial

Reality

 

[alexgowers]

'B' logo not at all aiming to be confused with beats... can they not just have a logo. Also looks like the beam app logo too.
[doublepost=1473148413][/doublepost]

Blue tooth as it is now sounds bad. This is especially true in the treble or when the music gets complex. I don't see how anyone who cares at all about music could say otherwise.

The issue with bluetooth especially on apple is quality for sure. iPhones don't support aptX, which is bluetooth for uncompressed. Current bluetooth transcodes (encodes again) the already compressed mp3/aac on your device, now that wouldn't be a problem if you were transcoding at a highrate but bluetooth current best is 256kpbs and it's not even mp3 so is also potentially worse. The other issue is that if apple remove the headphone jack they still are going to have to include a DAC inside the phone. But your bluetooth device will still need one too! So you are doubling up and most likely getting a worse sounding DAC compared to the excellent iPhone one. Adapters are going to be needed and all round it'll mean people don't listen to music on their iPhones as much and won't subscribe to iTunes music and all the services headphones need. Apple are shooting themselves in the foot IMHO i can't see the advantages especially internally the space saved is not enough.

 

[mixel]

'B' logo not at all aiming to be confused with beats... can they not just have a logo. Also looks like the beam app logo too.
[doublepost=1473148413][/doublepost]

The issue with bluetooth especially on apple is quality for sure. iPhones don't support aptX, which is bluetooth for uncompressed. Current bluetooth transcodes (encodes again) the already compressed mp3/aac on your device, now that wouldn't be a problem if you were transcoding at a highrate but bluetooth current best is 256kpbs and it's not even mp3 so is also potentially worse. The other issue is that if apple remove the headphone jack they still are going to have to include a DAC inside the phone. But your bluetooth device will still need one too! So you are doubling up and most likely getting a worse sounding DAC compared to the excellent iPhone one. Adapters are going to be needed and all round it'll mean people don't listen to music on their iPhones as much and won't subscribe to iTunes music and all the services headphones need. Apple are shooting themselves in the foot IMHO i can't see the advantages especially internally the space saved is not enough.

I think we're jumping the gun to think that Apple aren't doing something about sound quality. I agree from what we know so far this is bad news from an audio quality perspective, but presumably the lightning option will at least accommodate audiophile tastes.

I find it hard to believe they'd offer a wireless option that sounds significantly worse than their already horrible earbuds.

 

[BSben]

[QUOTE="

That won't happen Android manufacturers don't remove features just for the sake of removing them.[/QUOTE]

There are already Android phones without headphone jack....