I stopped using wired headphones in 2016. I used to cycle to work with my phone in my pocket listening to podcasts. The repetition of pumping my legs and bending the headphone jack back and forth and back and forth in my pocket eventually broke it so I got some bluetooth headphones and have never looked back.
My original bluetooth headphones got trashed when I was run over by a bus. I now have 3 options, all ostensably free.
My first is a Goji govbt17 headset. My youngest bought these with money he got for xmas and birthdays a few years ago and realised he didn't want them, they didn't do what he wanted so I got them as cast offs.
I broke the head band quite quickly. They were never designed for falling asleep in it turns out.
The headband now retains its integrity by using large wire paperclips bent to shape and gaffer (duct) taped into position. I sometimes have to take them apart and put them back together as the tape slackens over time but not often and I get better at it each time.
Recently the rechargable battery stopped holding a charge. I've soldered in a new battery, one that holds a higher charge and get around 18 hours continuous use. I'm not sure how long because I'm rarely awake that long. Something I've learnt is that lithium polymer batterys can go into general waste as long as they are fully discharged. If they are not fully discharged, put them in salt water for a couple of days. Not sure you can buy this headset any more but originally they were around £30 in a sale. £12 for a new battery.
My main earbuds are Jlabs Jbuds.
Around 3/4 hours play time. The charging pod that comes with them holds around 2/3 charge cycles so from fully charged earbuds and pod there's something like 16 hours play time. I changed the rubbery thing on the right ear to white to make it easier to know which ear each goes in. These are great, small, portable, descrete. Where the headset above isolates you from noise and people in the outside world, these allow some noise in and allows you to respond to others in your life. Bonus. The down side is they can fall out your ear. It's happened a couple of times outside the house at night and I've had to go back the next day and look for it in day light. I've found the lost one obs but they are easier to lose.
These are around £50 and I wouldn't normally think of spending that much on headphones. Fortunately my sister gives me £10 gift tokens for each xmas and birthday so effectively she bought them for me after a few years of me stockpilling tokens.
Lastly is my Faster F-69 bluetooth headset.
It spent 3 months in the college lost property before I calimed it so no cost to me. At about 1000 rupees ( £10) this is the cheepest. The beauty of this is I can go to bed with a podcast, music, movie or tv program on my phone or tablet without pressure from an earpiece or headphone on the side I'm lying on.
Not to diss iPods (I am dissing them, I'm not sure why I'm saying I'm not) but I'd think twice about spending £30 on earbuds and thrice at higher costs. I'd completely baulk at ipod prices. Maybe more evidence of
zenjenny's disrespect of minority groups perhaps.
On a last note, the Jlabs and Faster earbuds are both waterproof enough to be worn in a shower with hair washing going on with a little care. Wouldn't expect them to last long in a swimming pool though.
, except when I want to take sneaky photos or I want to take a photo on a tripod, then I use my Apple wired ones. The Airpods are brilliant. No sound escapes. But I don’t walk around with them in, so I can’t comment on how well they would do in that situation.
I went through several before I found two that work: The Claw (a rechargeable one) and CamKix.
