Thoughts on wireless earbuds

[smithy316]

These are Enjai earbuds. The reciever is ~ the size of quarter. The creator of them tried to get funding with a thing like Kickstarter but failed. Why is there a lack of interest? Why aren't there more things like this? Is there an technical/engineering reason why they haven't been done before? Or is there a product like this? I know sennheiser tried a while ago but $400-600 is too much. I think this is a great idea and wish I could buy some. I'm gonna keep watching Enjai though. I think this is the closest I've seen.

 

[Shining Wing]

There's something similar, which is Bluetooth earphones. The MEElectronics Air-Fi Metro is the only example I know, though. However, I can't find it linked anywhere on their, so it might be discontinued.

 

[heatofamatch]

These are Enjai earbuds. The reciever is ~ the size of quarter. The creator of them tried to get funding with a thing like Kickstarter but failed. Why is there a lack of interest? Why aren't there more things like this? Is there an technical/engineering reason why they haven't been done before? Or is there a product like this? I know sennheiser tried a while ago but $400-600 is too much. I think this is a great idea and wish I could buy some. I'm gonna keep watching Enjai though. I think this is the closest I've seen.

 
I've been interested in wireless/BT earbuds for a very long time, but with time comes the realization that, with wireless and Bluetooth, there's always a very pertinent question one must ask:
when are they truly useful, and when are they really just much ado about nothing?
 
I get the sense that this product is giving up a lot of features and utility by making the lack of cords a top priority. Do you hate the cords so much, so so much, that you need to go to a product that sacrifices most of its other facets? Since you posited a question asking why everyone's not as interested/excited as you, I'm gonna assume your answer is yes, but I know my answer to that is a very clear, definitive no, in spite of loving small gadgets in general.
 
Bluetooth is also in the same boat: the actual length of cord you're eliminating is actually not the entire length difference, but only between two points - from where the cord departs your body, NOT to the phones jack, but to the bottom edge of the phone. Which can be what... just a couple inches sometimes. Everyone's paying big bucks just to eliminate a very cheap, very short patch of cord like that, because there's something about it that drives them up the wall? How irrational is that hate? But okay, don't let me stop you, honey!
 
Let's also talk about the typical stereo Bluetooth receiver one might use with a smartphone. They are often double the physical volume of an ipod shuffle, carries double the battery capacity of the ipod shuffle, but get anywhere from 2/3 to 1/2 of an ipod shuffle's battery life (not counting the power draw on the phone side!), and by nature offer diminished sound quality. Still wondering why Apple doesn't make its own stereo BT receiver or earphones?
 
And allow me to veer slightly to talk a bit about my recent experience, which I think is a situation that may be analoguous. This year I've been wondering, is it better to listen to music stations streamed live on my phone, or can I really just record the same stations in advance, and play them on an mp3 player?
 
We've certainly got the technology for the former... except we don't. It's just not easy breezy yet. Emphasis on the yet, as I believe it'll mature some day. Today if I stream stuff on a phone as I'm walking down the street, I often find myself furiously fumbling for my phone to tweak volume/EQ, or check whether the stream's been cut off. I have to do that every time the sound drops. If I use Bluetooth, I have to juggle volume between the phone and the receiver - which is a lot of hassle don't you think?
 
So I dropped my old data plan (My sole use for it was lots and lots of streaming radio) and now just listen to streams I pre-recorded on my small army of mp3 players. I no longer fumble for the phone, I no longer walk around with my eyes on the screen waiting for apps to respond, and I save $100 a year in data plans that I can use elsewhere (the number is significant cause now I only pay $6 a month for what little data I use).
 
I'd like to sum up my thoughts as: Just because we've got the technological werewithal to "go there", doesn't mean it's an elegant thing to do. I'm not responsible for helping technology iterate; I'm a customer, I only choose and commit to what makes the most common sense in current time.
 
(Edited because I realized I mixed up the Enjai with another bud-only Kickstarter project I saw... my points stand though )

 

[suicidal_orange]

The best use I can think of for wireless earbuds would be while exercising (where sweat damages cables and they can be caught by flailing arms) but what then happens when a bud falls out?  If you're out running the guy behind you could tread on it or it could fall down a drain as there's no cord to act as a safety rope.
 
Overall I guess I agree with heatofamatch - it's a great idea but there isn't really a need for them and given the tiny space for a battery they aren't going to last very long which is a big compomise compared to a wired solution.  Maybe they'll be viable when miniature solar panels can be attached to power them, but not yet.

 

[smithy316]

@heatofamatch its not a necessity just like a Ferrari isnt, a 5k car will get you from point A to B just as well. I just like the concept of ear buds the size of earplugs. Also Enjai (concept) would be like a Bluetooth headset like jawbone, just smaller. Everything tries to go cordless (Wii, powermat, Kinect for Xbox, etc). The cord between your pocket and head can be annoying, not to mention the knots they magically form. The cord behind the neck design of current wireless ear buds isn't terrible, but it just doesn't seem to fit in, other than running. Its like having a glasses strap. Wireless ear buds obviously wouldn't be for the audiophile, but for the casual user it seems more practical. Addressing the issues with BT itself, there are other technologies. Kleer for one has been employed before for this and would've been successful if not for the $600 price tag. Now I'm no expert so the kleer tech could've been the cause for the price but it is nearly small enough. Even 5 years ago when sennheiser made the wireless ear buds (see Definitely maybe) they were smaller than your standard Jabra headset. So BT is power prohibitive and let's say kleer is cost prohibitive. What about low frequency radio waves? Why not that? I may just be ignorant and be missing something huge, but I just liked the concept.
Edit: Qualcomm is coming out with a "smart watch" and wireless ear buds. The ear buds look similar to hearing aids because of the hooks to keep them on, but its still not far from my thoughts.

 

[alpha421]

Two words why this concepts fails as a consumer product with the biggest hurdle cause by the latter: 1) Cost, 2) FCC
 
Yes, I had those Sennheisers.  I recall paying half of retail. They were heavy, cumbersome to insert, and when the receiver broke from a small drop, the earbuds instantly became paper weights. In a world where folks pay a premium for marginal increases of audio performance, paying a huge premium for much worse sound quality over wired, having to carry and lose/break either receiver or earpieces, having to charge both earpieces and receiver, having the earpieces and/or receiver run out of juice and never at the same time, knowing that one day they will become paper weights when they no longer hold a charge all contribute to the "nice idea and looks cool, but not ideal."

 

[Mooses9]

interesting concept.

 

[Intjmastermind]

What's the battery life on those things? Not much room to put a Li-ion cell in an IEM housing...

 

[smithy316]

What's the battery life on those things? Not much room to put a Li-ion cell in an IEM housing...

The enjai? It was a concept but 5-6 hrs were claimed
I'm not sure about the sennheiser and the qualcomm.

 

[heatofamatch]

@smithy and all,
 
I know this may be hard to understand, but I'm really not against new technology. I just prefer not to adopt them until they have the level of ease and quality that I believe should be intrinsic in all products that ask for my cash.
 
There is a sense of A) minimum ease-of-use and B) value-for-price ratio that is in fact pretty applicable across a wide range of products. As an example, for many years smartphones did not reach this minimum line - so what happened is manufacturers would generate a lot of excitement, and make the early adopters foot the bill for their constant iteration. They euphemize this as innovation but it isn't, because after all we're only racing on the road to a minimum line - the point where you and I, lay people who don't know the first thing about what's a good smartphone, can go to a random place, buy a random phone, and get excellent performance & reliability, to the point that we don't have to be particularly educated in the product to enjoy its optimal benefits.
 
We've reached that place with most home appliances; we hit that spot with our cars a long time ago, to the point that a new Camry with a V6 is arguably faster than many quasi-sports coupes ever built. We've hit that spot with PCs - regular non-gamers can get a very cheap laptop, literally pick with their eyes closed, and it's gonna be a generally usable machine for a few years in spite of how far Intel is still "improving" their products each year. I believe we've begun to hit that spot with smartphones only last year or this year. So, applying the same admittedly subjective criteria, I'd say we're at least one year away from small Bluetooth music products hitting this level. If you look at the Plantronics Backbeat Go 2 from this year, you might get what I mean - you can feel that it's maybe just one iteration away from becoming very well-rounded.
 
Whether it's wireless earbuds, or Bluetooth peripherals, or even wearable products - they're not new products. Attempts have been made throughout history from the first moment that technology made an attempt possible. But that does not mean the resultant products would have meaning or rhyme. I'm sick of paying for the early part of this process I've described. I'm an easily excitable member of society, I've done it many times. I paid, while feeling like I'm a superior member of some secret society...when I was in fact a bit of a moron.
 
Sure, everytime I watch TV, say something like Leverage or Nikita, their "coms" exhilarate me. I was vastly excited by that other wireless earbud project I mentioned...until I realized things like, I'll have to operate it by the bite of my jaw. It's just not practical, and I know I get very angry/upset at products that are not practical for me no matter how dreamy they are.