We used to have earbuds that don't need to be charged because they had a headphone jack, didn't get lost so easily because they had a cord attached to a headphone jack, never lost the bluetooth connection because they had a headphone jack, and they cost less because they had a headphone jack. https://bsky.app/profile/daisyfm.bsky.social/post/3l3mfjc6sn62k
Don't know where you pulled the 5 year from. I've got mine for longer than that and I have no problems with the battery. Also, didn't notice the lower fidelity, but I mostly listen to podcasts so I not gonna dispute that claim. Why I bought the bluetooth earbuds was because no matter how much I paid for wired earbuds (up to 120€) none of them survived more than 2 years. Approx after a year one would stop working and some time later the other would die too. So yeah, if you enjoy the shitty ultra thin wires that's great, but in my experience even cheap bluetooth earbuds work minimum three times longer than wired ones.
Bluetooth as an audio standard is factually lower fidelity
The average expected life span of a Li ion battery is 5 years
I don't know how you kill headphones so quickly, but you can 100% get quality wired earbuds for a third of the price of wireless earbuds with nice, thick, threaded cable. The YouTuber dankpods has a few videos about this with recs for cheap, good headphones.
Is this an analog vs digital thing? Bluetooth runs at a high enough bitrate that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And especially compared to the quality of the cabled headphones that used to be common any Bluetooth earphone is better
Cabled headphones have gotten a lot better and cheaper, and no it's a compression thing, here's an article about it
https://www.soundguys.com/understanding-bluetooth-codecs-15352/
And as I said, they have bitrates high enough that most people won't notice a difference. Especially since the files/steaming they'll be listening to have lower bitrate than Bluetooth.
Regardless, what matters most is the earphone quality and while there might be better and cheaper options now, that's not the cheap bundled headphone people are nostalgic of when they post things like this.
Apple Earpods are very high quality actually, and are praised as a good cheap option by audiophiles
I carry my phone in my pocket so the wire that's close to the jack bends very frequently and gets damaged. I'm glad you were able to find good wired buds. I searched for years and wasn't as lucky as you. But since I switched to no-name bluetooth earbuds I've had no problems so I'm very happy.
Are you claiming that the battery stops working after 5 years? As far as I know the maximum battery charge gets lower with time but the device is still functional. It just lasts a bit less.
Yes the expected life span of a lithium ion battery is only 5 years, everything you get after that is just luck of the draw.
It's minimum 5 years if you charge them every day. I charge mine maybe once a week when I use them regularly. So claiming that all lithium ion bateries last 5 years is misleading. Most manufacturers claim you have minimum of 2000 charging cycles.
If you have earbuds with a case, you charge them every time you put them in the case, and to add insult to injury a majority of those batteries are not replaceable when they 100% could be. That's really my biggest gripe, they're made to be not only finite, but disposable. It's just such a waste.
Fair point. Sustainability really should be a priority. I don't always return them to the case because a don't use them for too long at a time. But even if I do, charging them for 10% isn't the same as charging them for 100%. (I'm just stating that because the "5 year battery life claim" is absurd).
If you're a heavy user wired ones will probably be better for you, but I reccoment trying out both. I was really against the bluetooth ones before I bought a pair and now I'm really happy with them. It all depends on your situation.
It is minimum of 5 years on AVERAGE for lithium batteries.
The way you charge does not change the average.
Yes it does because no manufacturer claims the lifespan in years, they say you get 2000 charging cycles. The 5 year number is derived from 2000 / 365 = 5.48 and that assumes you are charging them fully every day.
Look buddy, I'm not a battery expert and I can tell you aren't either. You can't get an easy number because the chemistry is complex and the way you use them changes things. When you do get a nice clean year number it depends on many things so making broad proclamations isn't very useful.