Earbuds

[dolphins4life]

My earbuds keep wearing out.  Are they supposed to?  I wonder if it's because earwax gets in them, but you figure they'd be designed to avoid that.

[stinkfish]

Are you using lower quality ear buds? If you are that might be the problem.

[fyo]

How are they wearing out? Wired? Wireless?

Wired buds really will wear out, simply due to the cable being bent and twisted a ton of times and the thin strands will eventually break resulting in gradually worse audio quality until they finally stop working. Durable wired buds have something like a rubber sheath near the buds and the plug that make sure the wires don't bend really tightly right at the base at either end. You can also help by never pulling on the cable when you are unplugging, but rather on the plug itself.

Wireless buds should last a really long time, depending on how much you abuse them. Cheaper ones (and some expensive models) don't handle moisture well, so if you are out in the rain or exercising a lot with them, you might want to consider getting some buds that are rated to handle that kind of thing. You can even get waterproof models. Sure, your airpods should be okay with gentle rain and sweat, but they are only IPx4 rated, which is pretty low (technically they can withstand "splashing from any direction", whereas x5 is "jets of water from any direction", x6 is "powerful jets", x7 is "submersion up to 3ft for", x8 is > 3ft. The "x" bit is for particles/dust. Not sure how airpods are rated there, but I think they are IP54, which is decent for dust, although if you work in a very fine dusty environment, you might want to get something that is IP6x.

Wireless buds obviously have small batteries and these can wear out, particularly if you discharge them completely (so don't do that).

Wireless buds also don't particularly enjoy being dropped. The small antennas that handle the wireless component can break, as can the myriad of connections inside the buds. Speakers also generally don't appreciate being dropped.

Bottom line is that if you treat your wireless buds well, they should last a LONG time. Ear wax should not be a problem, but if you are getting a bunch of that stuff into the speaker grill, maybe getting some with silicone tips would work (if removing the wax from your ears isn't an easier solution).

[Dave Gray]

Brand?

I had Apple Airpods.  They worked for a couple of years, but I definitely saw a decrease in volume and an inconsistency between one ear and the other.  Like...one maintained volume and the other didn't.  I also wondered if it was earwax.  But I cleaned them pretty well.  I think it could also just be water damage or time.

Then I got Airpods Pro.  They are working great...been about a year.  My biggest issue with these is that sometimes, I think that one of the earpods doesn't make a good connection in the case, so an individual bud might not charge -- I probably just have gunk down in the case.

[dolphins4life]

I used a pencil to clean it out. (I have only one because I lost the other)  It's much better today.

[Dave Gray]

What brand are the earbuds?

[Dave Gray]

You still haven't said what brand your earbuds are, which I think is important information in evaluating your problem.

Edit - I'm not trying to shame you for buying off-brand earbuds.  It's just that your solution is going to vary depending on where you bought them and whether or not the product is likely supposed to be disposable after one season.

[Downunder Dolphan]

I've been a long time user of wired earbuds and loved them, especially the Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision which had an excellent sound and didn't cost that much.

After the removal of the headphone jack from the Samsung I've had a couple of pairs of true wireless earbuds, and the results are more mixed. The battery and product life for me is not really good enough for something that costs 8-10 times as much (and there are also plenty of dodgy fakes out there in the market if you look for something cheaper).

A friend got hold of an adaptor to be able to use wired earbuds with jack-less mobiles, and I'm seriously thinking of trying that with my old Sennheisers once my true wireless ones permanently run out of juice.







 

[dolphins4life]

I don’t know the brand.  The case is blank

[Dave Gray]

I don’t know the brand.  The case is blank

If you bought $20 earbuds or whatever, they're likely disposable.  They're made with cheap components with no expectation to last.  Use them for a while and they'll lose quality, then you'll have to buy again.

[Phishfan]

If you bought something and don't know the brand and it has a blank case,  keeping you from knowing what you bought the only answer is you bought something disposable so throw it away when it starts having problems. You get what you pay for in life and if buy something decent you at least know the brand.