A Look At The Possible Differences Between Wired And Wireless Headphones

You may have noticed more podcasters following our long standing tradition of at least two of us using wired headsets on the PC Perspective Podcast.  We do it because we are cranky old men who don’t want to change our habits, but apparently dangling wires are becoming a fad.  This led Hackaday to ask if there is a compelling reason to switch from wireless headsets to wired.

The majority of wireless headsets use Bluetooth, and that technology has come a long way.  LDAC will transmit audio at around 990 kbps with little to no distortion, so if both your headphones and your source support LDAC or AptX then you will need impressive hearing to be able to tell the difference between wired and wireless sound quality.   That is not to say a cheap pair of wireless headphones will outperform a high end pair of over the ears headphones; more that all things being equal the majority of us will not hear any difference.

Hackaday also pokes at the ultra high end wired headsets, $75,000 models with gold connectors and oxygen free cables with electrons supposedly massaged into a perfect pattern, and the fact that a banana will provide almost the same quality.  Take a peek if you are curious, or just want to follow the link to the banana test.