Replaceable Earphones Concept, Yay or Nay?
Replaceable Earphones Concept, Yay or Nay?
Posted 12/03/2010 at 6:04am
| by Paul Lilly
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One of the latest concepts floating around on Yanko Designs' website is a DIY Earphone System with replaceable earbuds. The idea is pretty simple: user replaceable earphones plug into a central module with media controls. When the earbuds stop functioning, as they're prone to do, you just plug in a new pair.
We see some potential here, but only if manufacturers get on board with cheaper headphones. For something like this to be worthwhile, you would have to assume that the major expense lies in the central module, otherwise this isn't much different than buying a complete set of earphones to replace the ones that broke.
And that's where we see things falling apart. A cheap set of earphones only runs a few dollars at Walmart, so how much could this concept really save you? And when you're talking about higher end earphones, you're paying for the speaker technology, not the control module.
Maybe we're overlooking something here, and that's where you come in. Other than the ability to plug two sets of earphones into a single central module, do you see this idea as a bust, or is there some great potential that we're missing? Sound off in the comments section below!
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BeEazy10
December 03, 2010 at 9:43pm
How much would it weight and total with buds plugged in?
smart ideal but if it to heavy it pretty much going to make your earbuds fall out your ear, and on top of that now u have 4 area to worry about getting short out. My bose earbuds is back by a lifetime warranty(i been using it, had to send back at least 5 pairs) why not just insure $100 pair of headphone for one set price rather then having to buy another pair of buds after your store warranty expires? All these connecting parts might cause a lost and sound quality, and can be really aggravating (if you pull one area to hard this come loose etc etc) I can go on and on and on and.... (yeah u get the point) about this connector... im going to cut it short, will keep track of development
violian
December 03, 2010 at 12:00pm
This concept/idea is going to fail miserably. I'm confident most of the costs associated with a set of earbuds are the drivers and not the cord. Most of earbuds last at least 2 years before they're gone bad, so I don't see a justification in shelling out an upfront cost for this product.
cynical
December 03, 2010 at 7:23am
My problem is never with the buds themselves but with the connector plug. I usually wrap the cable around my ipod or cellphone or whatever I'm listening to when I'm done and on earphones that have a straight plug on them, the cable usually ends up shorting out after 4-5 months of use. I finally splurged a bit and got some Sennheisers with the 90 degree plug but this product seems about worthless to me if you can't replace the most fragile part.
knexkid
December 03, 2010 at 12:22pm
Completly agreed...I've gone through probably about 5-7 pairs of earbuds, all breaking at the connector, not the earbuds themselves. I also solved the issue by getting a pair of sennheisers, a big pair with a heavy duty plug and a user replaceable cable.
ascendant
December 03, 2010 at 7:21am
in my experience it's not the drivers (which are the expensive part of the earbuds) that fail. More often than not it's the cord itself. So I could see myself getting something like this if the cord was replacable as well as the drivers. Even though UE already offers something like that it's for professional on-stage use by musicians and costs a small fortune (for me). So if this was a cheaper option I'd definately at least consider it.
Lhot
December 03, 2010 at 7:02am
...never uses ear buds at all, and not for the reasons you might expect. Personally I think ear buds are the short way to ear infections. Like the guy in the cabinet shop I worked in many years ago, who couldn't seem to shake the flu...he was ofc wearing the recommended face protection with the recommended dust filters installed. I told him...when did you last change the dust filter.
It could also be my just being overly paranoid too. But the idea of a warm, damp ear canal with no free air flow, just sounds to me like the perfect place for anerobic germs to set up shop. I also wouldn't use the same Q-Tip twice...so maybe replaceable may be a good thing ^^
Just sayin...
X2brute
December 03, 2010 at 6:49am
i think this would be an expensive headphone thing if i read it right, that way you don't have to pay full price when they break, pay $50 for each driver, and $2 for the rest, if a driver goes bad replace that not the whole system, although my uncle comes to mind too, hes deaf (old man style not sign language style) but hes deaf to different frequencies in each ear, maybe offer custom ones for each ear or something just like some people have to get one shoe a half size larger
stradric
December 03, 2010 at 6:41am
I would think the majority of the cost of headphones is in the tiny drivers. I'm not big on having additional weight on the cable either with media controls. I would never buy something like this.
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