<story><title>Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/11/fairbuds-xl-review-noise-cancelling-headphones-fix-yourself-bluetooth</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo</author><text>The &amp;quot;sustainable&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;environment friendly&amp;quot; choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever.&lt;p&gt;Of course that isn&amp;#x27;t the market these headphones are in, but that&amp;#x27;s also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won&amp;#x27;t get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they&amp;#x27;re still destined for the garbage heap.&lt;p&gt;Wireless headphones last a couple of years, where wired headphones last decades. These products won&amp;#x27;t be the exception, and the marketing angle (fair! environmentally friendly! repairable!) annoys me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fgeiger</author><text>I work at Fairphone but am not at all involved with the headphones. Still, I know that this is an issue that we thought about and address.&lt;p&gt;Headphones should keep working even if the manufacturer goes bust and stops providing software support. And even if your battery dies and spare parts are unavailable. That is precisely the reason why we also sell a cable with a 3.5mm jack for these cans. That way, this product is long-lasting and sustainable even in the (hopefully hypothetical) case that we are not able to support them anymore.&lt;p&gt;That is the best out of both worlds: you get wireless connectivity and ANC now. And you will be able to use them for as long as you would with wired ones.</text></comment>
<story><title>Fairbuds XL review: noise-cancelling headphones you can fix</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/11/fairbuds-xl-review-noise-cancelling-headphones-fix-yourself-bluetooth</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo</author><text>The &amp;quot;sustainable&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;environment friendly&amp;quot; choice for headphones are wired headphones that are built like a brick. A good pair will last basically forever.&lt;p&gt;Of course that isn&amp;#x27;t the market these headphones are in, but that&amp;#x27;s also the problem. New bluetooth standard? New advances in noise-cancellation? You won&amp;#x27;t get them. Even if these headphones are great (which I doubt) they&amp;#x27;re still destined for the garbage heap.&lt;p&gt;Wireless headphones last a couple of years, where wired headphones last decades. These products won&amp;#x27;t be the exception, and the marketing angle (fair! environmentally friendly! repairable!) annoys me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ip26</author><text>Planned obsolescence can be a good thing. Cans from the fifties and sixties still work. Nobody wants to use them; they are heavy, uncomfortable, have poor performance, need an amp to drive, and use huge old school connectors. They are from a time when music was enjoyed seated in one place.&lt;p&gt;Products that fail prematurely or wear out while the owner still wants them are poorly designed. The pinnacle of design is a product that works flawlessly until the day you are through with it, at which point every part fails simultaneously. Such a product wasted no excess material in being over-engineered, nor consumed exotic high performance materials when they were unwarranted, nor repair visits, nor extra fuel in transport.</text></comment>