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Why do the iPhone's earphones suck so much?

The apple headphones are not good, they are truly aweful in everyway. Fit and Sound quality.

The ipod has always claimed to be a music player of hi quality, but the headophones make a mockery of that. I almost returned my first ipod because it sounded so bad, luckily i found out it was the headphones.

Apple do not put a better ones in the box because they want to sell them to you for more money.
 
nick9191 said:
Why ship good headphones when 90% of all iPhone/iPod users couldn't care less?

The headphone jack is flush now, you can use whatever phones you like, get a decent pair of CX300's or something.
Click to expand...

I just bought the CX300's (my 3rd pair) yesterday. Awesome earphones:)
 
gowanis said:
my main complaint about apple's buds is that they are designed for people with giant ear holes. They simply do not fit in my ears.

I had been using sony street style (outer pads that hook behind the ears), but had to switch because of the iPhone jack. I ended up with Griffin tune buds ($14.99) and they are very good. They have 3 different sizes and they stay in your ears. My problem with these is that they die after a few months - they start to cut out on one side. I have found this to be the case with ALL headphones. Why does this happen? Does it happen even with expensive high end headphones? I'd be wary of spending more than $20 on headphones knowing that they won't last.
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LOL!!! Giant "EAR HOLES"....

I guess I fall into that category. Does that mean i'm loose, or "damanged goods"?
 
oftheheavens said:
well maybe you shouldn't listen to music! matter a fact if you don't use the iPod feature it will help with the battery life! and then also you can turn off every other feature that makes this phone an "iphone".

Just playin my headphones broke to, from sweating.

you have put tape around the microphone if you use them to work out and then they work fine.
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My friend had teh same problem. He uses his when working out and was sweating, and I guess it got in the headphones somehow. Now they're messin' up on him. *shrug*

Does anyone know if they make headphones for the iphone, that have a microphone in them (other than the ones that come with the iphone 3g)??/ If so, please PM me.
 
dextertangocci said:
I have very few complaints about the many Apple products I own and have owned. The seriously bad quality of the iPhone earphones is however hard to ignore.
Click to expand...

And for some of us, they don't fit. They would fall out of my ears just walking down the street. Completely useless.

I got a pair of cheap-o in-ear buds. Sounded GREAT, and completely isolated the noise, I can listen to music at half volume while the subway pulls in -- with the Apple ones I couldn't hear it turned all the way to full in that situation.

There was one thing that was driving me crazy though... because of the way the buds are mechanically attached to your ears, any movement of the cord gets transmitted as a rustling sound right into your ear. A guy at the Apple store showed me the solution: simply pop the cord between the top button of your shirt, presto.

I do miss the clicker though. I've looked at the v-modas, but come on, $125 for earphones? No way. I'm going to try the new Apple ones when they come out.

Maury
 
hexonxonx said:
It's also amazing to me how many people who claim to care so much about audio quality yet they purchased a portable MP3 player.
Click to expand...

Well what's the alternative? A portable record player? 8-track?

Bill Lear is laughing from the grave...

Maury
 
Maury said:
Well what's the alternative? A portable record player? 8-track?

Bill Lear is laughing from the grave...

Maury
Click to expand...

There is no alternative. It's just funny that people complain about the sound quality on the supplied headset when we are talking about a portable MP3 player. No MP3 player will have superior sound to begin with and people are spending hundreds of dollars on headsets for these. Compare the specs on an iPod to the specs of your home stereo system and you will see the difference.
 
Skull Candy's

I'm just about to try the Skull Candy FMJ iPhone headphones. They are build just for it and get good reviews... With the clicker and above average microphone, I think they are what I'm trying shortly...
 
I have a pair of Shure e3c and they are truly superb. Short of a custom mold, they are about as good as you can get.

Well worth the money.

Oh yeah, I am a live event technician so I understand that MP3s or MP4s are poor quality. But these headphones also sound great when used as in-ear monitors for a live show.
 
hexonxonx said:
There is no alternative. It's just funny that people complain about the sound quality on the supplied headset when we are talking about a portable MP3 player. No MP3 player will have superior sound to begin with and people are spending hundreds of dollars on headsets for these. Compare the specs on an iPod to the specs of your home stereo system and you will see the difference.
Click to expand...

Ur right about it, but the difference between iPhone -> iBuds and iPhone -> (optional) amp -> good IEM's is still worth it imo.
 
NDimichino said:
Because they're free. They're like bank pens, they suck, we all have a million of them already but we constantly take them from the drive-thru containers even though our console in our cars are filled to the brim with them. Why? Because they're free.
Click to expand...

Drive through banks??? that MUST be an American thing....
 
gowanis said:
my main complaint about apple's buds is that they are designed for people with giant ear holes. They simply do not fit in my ears.

I had been using sony street style (outer pads that hook behind the ears), but had to switch because of the iPhone jack. I ended up with Griffin tune buds ($14.99) and they are very good. They have 3 different sizes and they stay in your ears. My problem with these is that they die after a few months - they start to cut out on one side. I have found this to be the case with ALL headphones. Why does this happen? Does it happen even with expensive high end headphones? I'd be wary of spending more than $20 on headphones knowing that they won't last.
Click to expand...

I had problems with them falling out as well, but this ended when I bought some of the foam covers at The Apple Store.

I love them now because I'm used to them and the quality for phone calls is a million times better than just using the earpiece. But the new ones do sound like they'll be better, so I hope they work with iPhones. If they don't, I am calling Apple out on that.
 
garybUK said:
Drive through banks??? that MUST be an American thing....
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much every bank that is not built into some other structure has a drive through. Drive up, drop your deposit in the chute, or get a withdrawl, or whatever, and drive off. Drive through ATMs are everywhere as well. And why NOT have these things.

Oh, and on the topic of discussion...it's hardly like the iPhone and iPod are the only products that come with cheap accessories. That is pretty much a standard. Do you really think that a company is going to include a pair of top-of-the-line headphones with such a device, when a fair number of people will already have headphones that they use on other devices, or will want different ones for any number of reasons?

Or for the ones saying "But I have large ear holes!"...how is any company supposed to account for that? Supply 5 different sizes of earbuds?

Come on people, get into the real world. Apple is not trying to get you to spend more money with them on other headphones, as they only produce a couple of sets. You will more than likely get other headphones from a different source. So they are going to keep their production costs low.
 
I have always had to replace the headphons with an over the ear - the apple buds just do not stay in my ear. kind of sucks.
 
They definitely aren't the best earbuds in the world, but overall they aren't too bad. If the stock Apple buds could actually fit and stay in my ear canal, the sound quality would be fair enough. When I get them in just right, I'm actually pretty impressed with the sound. The problem is, the second I move, the seal is lost.

I have noticed that the ones that came with my 3G seemed to be a lot flimsier than my 1st gen or other iPods.


hexonxonx said:
There is no alternative. It's just funny that people complain about the sound quality on the supplied headset when we are talking about a portable MP3 player. No MP3 player will have superior sound to begin with and people are spending hundreds of dollars on headsets for these. Compare the specs on an iPod to the specs of your home stereo system and you will see the difference.
Click to expand...

While it's true that an MP3 player isn't going to sound as good as a high-end stereo system, the problem lies more with bit rate than the player. Most people don't even realize that you can adjust the bit rate. I'd definitely argue that a lossless file (FLAC, Apple Lossless, etc.) on an iPod with a decent set of headphones actually sounds quite good. Even to a true audiophile.
 
I love the included earphones and use them for most of my phone calls, for several reasons - they are cheap (I bought a bunch of spares, for the car, home office, laptop bag, and I also keep one in my pocket), they don't require charging like a bluetooth headset, I don't have to hold the phone to my face duriing a call, call quality is good, much better than using the earpiece directly, much safer when driving, and I'm not radiating my brain. I also like the open air style of the headphones so that you can hear what's going on around you during a phone call. For music I prefer closed style headphones and I have Bose QC2's for that purpose.
 
Yh the standard headphone are pretty crappy, although they did go through the was with a bunch of my close (left them in my trouser pocket) and they still work....probably the best feature about the headphones:rolleyes:
 
Well seems like no one has posted with a teen's view of this matter, which I'm about to do. I'm a teenager and I think that the Apple earbuds just look cool and is an icon. When we see them, we automatically assume iPod/iPhone is the other end of the earbud. We're young, so we don't know a lot about audio quality and such, being as I said, young. We tend to care about our outlook and our peers. With that being said, most teens don't have $50+ for earphones. School is rough, and if we bought expensive earphones, they'd get damaged in one way or another. Also it's an item of theft.

Speaking personally, I use the Apple earbuds because I just can't be bothered by over-ear earphones or the in-ear ones since it's hard to put away really quickly. Most of my friends just stuff them unceremoniously into jeans/jacket pockets when class starts. Whoa, long post. Sorry about that. Just my $0.02.

Bottom line, teens probably make up up to 70% who don't care about headphones, and Apple is geared toward the teen/young adult market, which cares about looks and probably not quality. For the others, there are the $79 in-ear Apple earbuds that are coming soon, with 2 tweeters or something like that. They aren't meant to be high-quality, just something that is ok sounding and convenience, i.e. you don't have to buy other earbuds when you buy an iPod.
 
i need a few pairs of the oem headphones

hi i need a few pairs of the oem iphone headphones w/mic..
i use them at the gym and they wear out quickly.
( new please )
please if anyone has a extra pair or if you are willing to sell and ship.
let me know

thanx all
 
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