Open Ear Earbuds
In-ear earbuds are weird, aren’t they? You’ve got those small rubbery mushrooms that you shove into your ear canal to listen to music and you hope there’s no juicy ear gunk on them when you pull ‘em out.
I have the Pixel Buds Pro and the Sony WF-1000XM5. I bought the Sony earbuds because the Pixel Buds are a little annoying. You have to corkscrew the Pixel Buds into your ear, but it’s also one big touch-sensitive surface, and when you twist them in or out of your ear, you inevitably trigger a touch gesture. If they loosen a bit, you push them back, and you trigger another touch gesture. So I tried the Sony earbuds, and they’re a little better at this.
By the way, both have a great sound. But it’s not about the sound, it’s about the feel. And I don’t always like the feeling of clogging my ear canal.
Earbuds used to be different. Back when you had a cord – at least one that connected both buds together – you could just pull one side out and let it dangle. Like when you’re at the checkout counter at the grocery store and you don’t want to be rude to the cashier and you actually want to hear what they’re saying. Even though earbuds now have this transparency mode where you can still hear your surroundings… it just feels rude to me. If someone tries to talk to me, I pull out a bud.
And what do you do with the single earpiece? Hold it awkwardly between your fingers? Throw it in a pocket to fish it out later, accidentally triggering 20 touch gestures in the process? Pulling out the case just to put it away quickly? Pffffft. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
I have found that I like in-ear earbuds for longer, uninterrupted listening sessions, like on a train or plane or a long walk where I want to be buried in music. But I also wear them a lot for short trips, and then I don’t like them. Running errands is always a short walk away, and I spend most of my daily walks listening to or recording voice memos (almost exclusively with Daniel). That’s where in-ear earbuds don’t do it for me.
I recently stumbled upon the concept of Open Ear Earbuds (roll credits!). You don’t stick them in your ear, they just sit very close to your ear. It’s like a private little speaker that follows you and points at your ear. You can still hear the world around you, which I actually like when I’m not immersed in music. And because I don’t have my ears plugged, I don’t feel like I’m being rude by not taking them out in certain situations. I can just pause the music. No taking them out temporarily. Maybe I’m just a special boy, but it feels better.
In particular, I bought the Huawei FreeClip. Not a brand I would normally choose, but the features were too intriguing.
The FreeClip is this bean and ball that you just clip onto your ear. Sort of like a big piercing. The bow between them is flexible, and clipping them on and off is super easy. They’re not tight, but they’re in place and won’t move.
What really sold me was the fact that there are no left or right buds. They’re interchangeable and automatically recognize if they’re left or right. It’s a small detail that makes life less annoying. It makes putting them back in the case a breeze, and if I’m only wearing one bud and the batteries are empty, I can use the other bud on the same side.
They have touch gestures, of course, but you don’t have to touch the earbuds, you can just tap somewhere on your ear. Cool, I guess.
They also sound good, the base is of course less punchy like it’s common with open-ear earbuds, but as I said, I don’t wear them because I want to block out the outside world and just be surrounded by music. What I didn’t expect is that when you turn the volume up to 100%, they turn down the base even more. I don’t know why they do that, maybe because of the drivers, but it’s not a problem for me, I don’t need to use them at full volume.
When I go out to do some quick errands or take a walk to listen to some voice memos, I always use them now, and I really like it.
Two weeks ago I flew to Mallorca for a work trip and took my Pixel Buds to listen to music on the plane. I haven’t used them in a while, and interestingly enough, there was a firmware update and they seem less sensitive now.
I guess that’s my life now. The earbeans for casual everyday use, and the earnubs for active deep listening.
