You don't see any merit to beam-forming microphones for noise cancellation, seamless paring experience, Siri access, other-earphone awareness, or lack of tangled wires?
You don't remember how iconic the white earbuds have been as a status symbol?
It's fine, and even expected, to say, "This product doesn't fit my use-case." But to be unable to fathom why any person on the earth would want to buy the product... that takes a total disconnection from headphones as a category of device, and I'm not willing to believe that's true.
> You don't see any merit to beam-forming microphones for noise cancellation, seamless paring experience, Siri access, other-earphone awareness, or lack of tangled wires
I honestly cannot. They're impressive solutions to problems Apple have created for themselves.
Personally, I don't use the built-in microphones in headphones. If I'm speaking to someone, I either hold the phone to my ear, or use speaker phone.
Taking two seconds to plug my wired headphones into my device is a pretty "seamless pairing experience", and I can use them with whatever device I please, unlike the AirPods.
My wired headphones don't need to be "aware" of each other, because they are connected to each other.
I spend about ten seconds each day ensuring my headphone cable isn't tangled.
> You don't remember how iconic the white earbuds have been as a status symbol?
Where I'm from, white earbuds have only ever been: a) an invitation to thieves looking to steal the device they're connected to; b) a sign that someone doesn't care about audio quality.
> [...] that takes a total disconnection from headphones as a category of device, and I'm not willing to believe that's true.
On the contrary, I think the problem is that I would actually consider a headphone purchase, rather than blindly buying something like the AirPods.
The advanced noise cancelling, pairing, and synchronization tech are solutions to problems that don't exist (or are less pronounced, in the foremost case) with wired headphones.
Creating to solutions to nonexistent problems is a cornerstone of the electronics industry. Nobody ever needed an iPod. Apple didn't become the most valuable brand in history by selling people things they needed.
“It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
— Steve Jobs
How is noise related to wireless? I was not aware that wired headphones enjoyed any advantage there, and I can't see how they would.
The others are certainly wireless problems, but some people prefer wireless for a variety of reasons. Lots of manufacturers sell wireless headphones. To say that Apple created those problems makes no sense.
I never see people wearing headsets that place the microphone near the mouth outside of specialized settings, nor do I see people holding the microphone to their mouth. I suspect they generally want to keep their hands free.
I don't think the distance between the speaker and microphone matters. Canceling out the noise you're emitting isn't hard with modern signal processing.
My biggest complaints is that they are in-ear. I really wonder how they will stay in place outside of a desk chair or a couch. At least with a cable you had a chance to catch it when it fell. An ear-clip version would be great.
Then perhaps you should read any of the many reviews by people who have had preproduction units... They pretty strongly lean towards them being comfortable and hard to dislodge - to a surprising extent. Tests in reviews I've seen have included running, dancing, headbanging, and jumping up and down intentionally trying to dislodge them.
Seems that the fact there's no cord to pull on them, and all of the mass is inside your ear makes them pretty stable.
9 times out of 10, "I can't fathom why anyone would want product X" can be swapped with "I don't want product X."
It's often used due to mental laziness or lack of empathy. I personally don't want a pair either, but I can certainly imagine why it appeals to people.
"I simply cannot understand why anyone would prefer these to existing wireless headphones."
One example: people with a major investment in the Apple eco-system. Pair it once with your iPhone, and it's also paired with your laptop, with your iPad, with your iPod, etc.
I've had plenty of frustrations trying to get bluetooth headsets to pair with a single device, let alone multiple devices, so anything that makes that easier is valuable to me.
How valuable is another question: another $10, another $50, another $100? That's pricing for the market to decide. I can recognise the technical improvement, which just leaves the question of the monetary value of that improvement.
Would you mind elaborating the flaws you see in them? Curious to see other point of views.
Personally, I am more of an in-ear earphones user, so I am more drawn to e.g. Bragi earphones, but even then I am missing the option of custom in-ear moulds, so I am sticking with shure audio drivers + Westone bluetooth cable. I do welcome Apple entrance because I could see how they might be able to push development of the sector and some advances.
The sound quality of the EarPods, which presumably the AirPods are based on, is good but definitely a very subjective thing. I've found them to be excellent for the price/form factor. Things I like:
- Great, deep bass response (when you position them to create a good seal between your ears and the outside world).
- Reasonably detailed mids.
- Somewhat diminished but still relatively detailed highs.
- Comfortable for wearing for long periods of time.
- Isolation isn't too strong, even with a good seal (helpful for maintaining situational awareness).
My only complaint is that between different pairs, the ability to get a comfortable seal can be inconsistent. However, I wouldn't consider them high end, and while their lack of noise isolation can be a downside at times, given the cost and the excellent bass and overall clarity, I think they're a great earphones.
If the AirPods have better SQ, that'd be awesome; but if they have the same sound quality but without the wires and with good (and hopefully passthrough when possible) audio compression, I'll be eager to buy a pair. And I think as more and more people wear them, they'll quickly become fashionable to wear.
On a related note, I hope Apple and others are eventually able to move to lossless, even lower latency compression for wireless audio. I absolutely love the lossless compression the AirPort Express provides via AirPlay.
For me it's simple: I wear earphones a lot, I'm sick of dangling wires, and I find earpods comfortable (I don't like the style of Bluetooth earbuds that wedge in tight). And because I'll use them 90% for spoken word content, the audio quality is acceptable.
The only thing I don't like is the loss of volume and track controls. I'm hoping a software update will eventually address that.
The designers didn't design one set of headphones and say "we're done, sell it Phil". They designed a bunch of models and then they iterated on the best received of those until they had something better than the competition.
If you can't fathom why anyone would want them how do you explain the consistently positive reviews?
I simply cannot fathom why anyone would want to own a pair.