This post first appeared in the Mercury News
I love the sound from my Google Pixel Buds Pro earbuds but it’s a miracle I still have them. Over the past several months at least one of them has fallen out of my ear on bike rides, airplane trips and walks. One time I gave up looking, but a fellow pedestrian found it for me. On a flight to New York, the flight attendant had to practically take the seat apart to locate my lost earbud. I’ve heard similar complaints from Apple AirPod users, though more recent versions of AirPods are a bit less likely to fall out.
Losing a device that can cost $200 or more is no joke so, despite the portability and convenience of these small earbuds, there is a good reason to consider an alternative, including much less expensive earbuds (you can find some on Amazon for under $20) or other technologies such as traditional style headphones, open ear headphones with an ear loop that keeps them in place and bone conduction headphones with a band that goes behind your neck.
There are other reasons why you might consider avoiding earbuds. For some, they are uncomfortable, and they are incompatible with hearing aids because they, like hearing aids, go inside the ear. And, unlike some over the ear headphones, they can only be used with Bluetooth – there isn’t a cord to connect to airplane entertainment systems TVs and other devices with a traditional headphone plug, though there are inexpensive dongles that connect Bluetooth headsets to a standard headphone jack. The Beeitzie Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver I bought from Amazon for $32 (on sale) does the job nicely.
Over the Ear traditional headphones
Almost any type of headphone will come at a wide range of price points. The ones I tested tended to be in the middle or towards the lower end. You can, for example, spend more than $400 for a great pair of Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, but you can find decent ones for a 10th of that price. It all depends on your personal standards and your budget. I like great sounding music, but I mostly listen to podcasts and audiobooks and, when I do listen to music, it’s usually on a walk where I’m not doing what you might call critical listening. If you’re an audiophile or just like using headphones to sit quietly and enjoy music, it’s worth investing in highly rated headphones.
I own a pair of really good headphones, but they’re big and bulky and a bit uncomfortable, which are issues when I travel. So, I decided to try out the Soundcore Q30, currently available on Amazon for $55 after the limited time 30% discount.
Those headphones sound good for the price and the noise canceling feature does a great job of reducing background noise. I haven’t yet tried them on a plane but I have used them with a vacuum cleaner and they did a great job filtering out most of the noise. Like many (but not all) Bluetooth over-the-ear headphones, they have a headphone jack but you have to provide your own cord and unlike some headphones, you can’t use the noise canceling feature when they’re plugged in on an airplane. If you do a lot of flying and plan to plug into the airline’s audio system, consider a different model or get a headphone jack to Bluetooth adapter. But some airlines no longer have screens and require you to watch on your own mobile device so this may not even be an issue. Like most high-end earbuds, it also has a transparency mode that lets in the sound around you which is sometimes important and cleverly switches to transparency mode if you hold your hands up to the right ear cup. It comes with an app that includes an equalizer with multiple presets for different types of music and spoken words. The headphones are light, very comfortable and foldable. Admittedly they don’t sound as good as some more expensive headphones but, for my purposes, they’re good enough.
Even headphones without active noise canceling filter out some of the noise simply because they cover your ears. They’re less portable than earbuds but much less likely to be lost. Because they have larger speakers, they tend to have better sound than similarly priced earbuds and, as long as they’re not too heavy or too tight, I find them more comfortable than earbuds.
Bone conduction
I also tried a couple of models pair of Shokz open-ear bone conduction wireless earphones. They were very comfortable, hearing aid compatible and stayed in place during walks, bike rides and runs. The sound quality of the $79 was pretty good, but not as good as comparably priced headphones I tested. I also tried out the $179 Shokz Openrun Pro which, admittedly, sounds a lot better but – aside from their much higher price point – they use a proprietary charging cable which, for me, is a disqualifier because I have a tendency to lose cables. The less expensive model has a built-in USB C port which I strongly prefer. You can also get open-ear headphones with traditional speakers such as the Soundcore by Anker Life Note C Earbuds True Wireless Headphones that I tested. The sound was surprisingly good, especially for its sub-$50 price. They were comfortable and that ear hook made them unlikely to be lost. But they did come with a required charging case which is yet another thing to pack on a trip and potentially lose or misplace.
Ironies and Aging
For many years, most smartphones would come with earbuds which, frankly, weren’t all that great. I found it a bit ironic that, despite amazing advancements in technology, most people were listening to music through inferior earbuds. Now that most phones don’t come with earbuds, people have to buy them which, despite costing more money, means they can get higher quality listening devices. But there is one more irony. As we age, many people experience at least some hearing loss. When I was younger, I bought the best audio equipment I could afford but my budget was quite limited. Now that I’m older, I can afford better equipment, but with some hearing loss – especially at higher frequencies – I don’t appreciate it quite as much as I did in my teens 20s and 30s.