You’re going on an Airplane Ride! What Fun! While you’re on the plane or in the airport, take some time and note here what you see people wearing and using in the headphone audio arena.
Went to Las Vegas this last week and what do I see on the plane and in the airport? Lots of Apple Airpods or knockoffs of same.
There was one person with some larger white round things, about 3/8 inch thick by 3/4 inch round things. At first I thought they might be the Galaxy Buds, but no. Seemed to work with his phone, but also with a smaller white media device - I couldn’t read the brand.
What I did NOT see were all the BOSE headphones, or even SONY noise reducing phones that were common a couple of years ago, although they are still in the airport vending kiosks.
A lot of people still use the earbuds that came wired with their phones. Nothing fancy caught my eye.
I used my Sennheiser IE 40 Pro for on the plane - no mic, but I didn’t expect to take calls… They don’t want you doing internet telephony even if you buy wireless on the plane.
I don’t like those Airpods - they look goofy. But when I looked em up, they are fashionable. But then again so are big holes in earlobes.
I touched on this in another thread somewhere on here, but AirPods are as much status symbols among a certain niche as much as they are convenient music implements. The reasoning behind this is their high price, in part (relative to most other offerings non-audio enthusiasts might be considering, e.g. low-tier Philips, KZ, or Skullcandy earphones), as well as their association with a premium brand like Apple.
It’s pretty much BS as far as I’m concerned, and loads of people I meet in public wearing AirPods or their wired siblings tend to compensate for the lack of isolation by cranking the volume up loud enough that I’m able to hear what they’re listening to in a moderately clanky elevator, approx a foot away from them; my ears are cringing thinking of how loud people might be blasting music on airplanes, of all places.
Knockoffs that are functionally similar cost about $10 or $15 from GearBest or AliExpress. Given the leaky nature of these products, they sound every bit as good in a noisy public place.
I’ll stick with Sony or Bose noise cancelling myself…
When I was in the San Diego airport, and having been annoyed to death by not having any headphones on the flight out there, I picked up a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-ANC40BT at a vastly over priced airport shop.
They were far better than I expected, and I still use them occasionally in the garage while running the table saw or jointing/planing lumber. They fit just fine under my 3M hearing protection earpad thing, whatever you call it. The AT isn’t good enough to protect your hearing from super loud power tools.
