Speaker 1: The best wireless headphones according to Wirecutter. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Damiro. This is Rich on Tech and with
Speaker 1: me today is Lauren Dragon. She is an editor at
Speaker 1: a senior staff writer senior staff writer at Wirecutter. And
Speaker 1: this is a great website Wirecutter. If you're not familiar
Speaker 1: with it, it's kind of like the reviews website to end
Speaker 1: all reviews websites. They basically test out a lot of
Speaker 1: products and come up with not just one perfect product,
Speaker 1: but kind of good products for what your needs are. Yes, So, Lauren,
Speaker 1: tell me about you test headphones for a living, for
Speaker 1: a living full time.
Speaker 2: Despite what my mother might tell you, it's a real job.
Speaker 1: So just all day, every day, all day every day.
Speaker 2: So that's all I do is essentially I get in
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of headphones, I try them out, I
Speaker 2: get a panel to listen to them. We do things
Speaker 2: like sweat testing and run testing and durability testing, and
Speaker 2: from there we kind of try to find the best
Speaker 2: thing that fit people's needs and make their lives easier.
Speaker 1: And what gives you this right to review headphones? You
Speaker 1: have a pretty good history with audio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a pretty big audio background. I have
Speaker 2: a bachelor's degree in music performance and audio production, and
Speaker 2: then I went into radio for a few years, and
Speaker 2: then I went into voiceover for a while. So I've
Speaker 2: been in and out of professional recording booths and studios
Speaker 2: and seeing what professionals are using. And then I started
Speaker 2: writing Oh Gosh about like ten plus years ago for
Speaker 2: Sound and Vision and other audio review sites and web
Speaker 2: and magazines. And then from there Wirecutter came out about
Speaker 2: five years ago.
Speaker 1: Okay, now I give my explanation a Wirecutter, you want
Speaker 1: to add yours.
Speaker 2: Essentially, we find the stuff that fits best into your
Speaker 2: life to help you do things easier and make your
Speaker 2: life better. So you know, it may not be a
Speaker 2: one size fits all kind of thing. We try to
Speaker 2: think about different use cases and different people's needs. So
Speaker 2: whereas other things other sites might just say this is
Speaker 2: the best thing in a vacuum, Well, it might not
Speaker 2: work if you have a small apartment, may not work.
Speaker 2: If you were a single mom, it may not work.
Speaker 2: So we think about the different ways that you might
Speaker 2: use something, and we try to find something to fit
Speaker 2: your needs as opposed to just what the best thing is.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we're going to do one, two, three, We're
Speaker 1: going to do four types of headphones here, okay for
Speaker 1: various use case scenarios. So your first pick is least expensive,
Speaker 1: this is your workhorse. What's your pick, so the job remove.
Speaker 2: They've been our pick actually for a couple of years now,
Speaker 2: and they're super durable. They sound way better than you think.
Speaker 2: They're really comfortable, so you can wear them a really
Speaker 2: long time and they won't bother your ears. A lot
Speaker 2: of times you'll notice with cheap headphones book cut corners
Speaker 2: by putting in crappy foam or weird plasticky parts, and
Speaker 2: you'll kind of cut into you and so you maybe
Speaker 2: wear them for an hour and then you start finding
Speaker 2: yourself wanting to take them off and give your.
Speaker 1: Ears a break.
Speaker 2: You won't have that problem with these. So that's why
Speaker 2: I love them is they're really easy to use buttons.
Speaker 2: They're very comfortable, and a lot of stuff out there
Speaker 2: isn't and they sound great.
Speaker 1: And they're also flexible. When you first showed them to me,
Speaker 1: you kind of flex them around, So I like that aspect.
Speaker 1: Before we move on to our kids pick, which I
Speaker 1: really think they look very cool. I know you can't
Speaker 1: see them on the podcast. But they look really nice.
Speaker 1: They look like a premium, like one thousand dollars pair
Speaker 1: of headphones. But tell them I have a certain thing
Speaker 1: where I have to have headphones that kind of cup
Speaker 1: over my ears because I don't like them when they
Speaker 1: sit on my ear. Is that like a preference or
Speaker 1: is it.
Speaker 2: Totally a preference? So we have on ear versus over ear,
Speaker 2: and we actually have different picks for people like that.
Speaker 2: So and you're not alone. People that wear glasses tend
Speaker 2: to like on ear because they don't interfere with the
Speaker 2: arms on their glasses. People like you maybe like over
Speaker 2: ear because it doesn't feel as like compressed on their
Speaker 2: actual outer ear area.
Speaker 1: So we do have pick.
Speaker 2: Sort of things the job remove are on ear, and
Speaker 2: generally because of the size of the drivers and that's
Speaker 2: like the little cone thing inside of a speaker, except
Speaker 2: smaller in headphones, those things tend to be more expensive
Speaker 2: the bigger you get. So if you have bigger over
Speaker 2: your headphones, that tend to cost more money. So you'll
Speaker 2: find that like on ears, tend to usually cost a
Speaker 2: little less than the over ear counterpart.
Speaker 1: Interesting. Okay, so let's get into the kids pick that
Speaker 1: you have, and these, like I said, these look like
Speaker 1: a very expensive pair of headphones. What's your pick?
Speaker 2: So the PUROBT twenty two hundred and what I love
Speaker 2: about these is they may not look like kids headphones.
Speaker 2: And we thought when we tested it with a bunch
Speaker 2: of kids, so we got some you know, three year olds,
Speaker 2: four year olds, ten year olds, and we wanted to
Speaker 2: see what they liked. And I thought they'd go for
Speaker 2: the fun cartoon colors, and that they really didn't. They
Speaker 2: wanted something that looked like grown ups headphones, and a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff out there is very breakable, kind of disposable,
Speaker 2: and these will last your kids.
Speaker 1: So my two year old.
Speaker 2: Fit in them when I was doing stuff. They'll fit
Speaker 2: them all the way up until they basically hit tween age,
Speaker 2: and they'll last you well because they have metal parts,
Speaker 2: they have nice solid memory foam, they have easy use buttons,
Speaker 2: but most importantly, they have volume limiting, so kids may
Speaker 2: not be able to pay attention to the fact that
Speaker 2: they're turning their music up too loud, and that can
Speaker 2: damage their hearing really quickly. In fact, some of the
Speaker 2: headphones we test it got to jackhammer levels and.
Speaker 1: That's not Okay, so what is this limit?
Speaker 2: It to eighty five dB. So that's the World Health
Speaker 2: Organization's limit. That's what they say is recommended. You know,
Speaker 2: it's a part of a noise diet. There's a whole
Speaker 2: other thing we could go into about how your ears
Speaker 2: deal with loud sounds. Not about one loud impact. It's
Speaker 2: about the larger picture.
Speaker 1: That you take in through a day.
Speaker 2: But eighty five dB over eight hours is considered generally
Speaker 2: speaking safe. So your kids can put these on, they
Speaker 2: can try to crank them up as loud as they want,
Speaker 2: but they can't go into what's considered unsafe volumes.
Speaker 1: Okay. And they're Bluetooth. They've got an unoff switch, they've
Speaker 1: got a volume switch. They also have a plug if
Speaker 1: you want to go wired.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And they have a micro USB charger on there. But again,
Speaker 1: you were stepping on them earlier and they still look great.
Speaker 2: So literally took them and I are combat boots for
Speaker 2: the ones that the kids like the best, and I
Speaker 2: just stomped around on them, because that's what happens. You
Speaker 2: drop them in the car, kids step on them, they do.
Speaker 2: So that's what's great about these things is that they
Speaker 2: are built to last you. So yes, it may seem
Speaker 2: like you're spending a little more money, but you figure
Speaker 2: you could get three or four twenty dollars pairs over
Speaker 2: the span of a couple of years or by one
Speaker 2: and it will last you.
Speaker 1: And these Puros are one hundred dollars. Yeah, round hundred,
Speaker 1: So one hundred dollars for these and again kind of
Speaker 1: seems expensive. But this is the thing when people don't realize,
Speaker 1: Like you said, if you spend twenty dollars on the
Speaker 1: Amazon basics or whatever they are, you know, you buy
Speaker 1: three pairs of those because they break all the time.
Speaker 1: You might as well buy one nice pair, and you're
Speaker 1: investing in safety and safety. I like that idea too,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of parents don't think about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah that you know, for my kids, I'm always adjusting
Speaker 1: like their headphones. I'm like, let me listen to that before,
Speaker 1: and of course an hour later I listen again and
Speaker 1: it's like cranked up yep. So I do agree, set
Speaker 1: it and forget it a little bit. I'll be purchasing
Speaker 1: those through your affiliate link, of course. Okay, So, Jabra,
Speaker 1: this is your best alternative to the AirPods. Yes, tell
Speaker 1: me about these.
Speaker 2: So you've got Actually they have two different versions of these,
Speaker 2: so there's the Elite sixty five T and then the
Speaker 2: Elite Active sixty five T. The Elite Active, the main
Speaker 2: difference is they're a little more sweat resistant, and they
Speaker 2: also have a little bit of fitness tracking, which isn't
Speaker 2: that important honestly.
Speaker 1: They use an app most of the time.
Speaker 2: Right and honestly most people that are really serious about
Speaker 2: that and they use a watch or something else. But
Speaker 2: for me, the Elites are also sweat resistant, water resistant,
Speaker 2: dust resistant, And what I love about these is well,
Speaker 2: the AirPods are great for using on a Mac and
Speaker 2: if you have a lot of Apple products and you're
Speaker 2: transferring from one to another, they transition beautifully because they
Speaker 2: have that W one chip, which is their version of Bluetooth.
Speaker 2: Basically it's pretty seamless. But aside from that, they don't
Speaker 2: do a whole lot else really well. The Jabra they're Elite,
Speaker 2: the sixty five T and the Act of sixty five
Speaker 2: T sound better, stay in, better, fit better, have more controls,
Speaker 2: and are more durable because they have the water and
Speaker 2: sweat resistance. So essentially, unless you're a hardcore Maac fan,
Speaker 2: these are really going to do a lot more for you.
Speaker 2: And they also have four microphones in them, so they
Speaker 2: do really great video chats, voice calls. I people a
Speaker 2: lot of times to be like, wait, do you have
Speaker 2: something in because they can't even see them, and they
Speaker 2: sound fantastic. And they also help to reduce background noise,
Speaker 2: so if you're working in an office or if you're
Speaker 2: working at the gym, they transition really well between both.
Speaker 2: And they have about the same battery life and they
Speaker 2: cost about the same which is around one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty okay.
Speaker 1: And it looks like they come in sort of a
Speaker 1: charging case similar to what the same.
Speaker 2: Thing so you get it's the same thing as AirPods
Speaker 2: where it's like you get about four to five hour
Speaker 2: use in your ears and then you put them in
Speaker 2: and they'll charge fully two more times each, you know
Speaker 2: when you put them in.
Speaker 1: So okay, you know, So if you're not, you know,
Speaker 1: in love with the Apple stuff or you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: need that, go with the job where you get more
Speaker 1: features for about the same price. All right, now, finally
Speaker 1: on the table here we've got the noise canceling pick.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because I bought my first pair of Bows.
Speaker 1: I think it was like when I first started at
Speaker 1: KTLA eight years ago. I was going to Japan and
Speaker 1: I was like, do I spend three hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: dollars on a pair of headphones. I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I've seen all the advertising, I'm going to
Speaker 1: do it, and I've loved them ever since. They've lasted
Speaker 1: since then, by the way, so that's been eight years.
Speaker 1: But your pick, I am verified here you have a
Speaker 1: pair of Bows as your top sort of noise canceling headphones.
Speaker 1: So tell me about these. What are these called?
Speaker 2: So the QC thirty five Mark two, which is a
Speaker 2: really long name. But what makes them different is that,
Speaker 2: first of all, Bos has their noise canceling you just
Speaker 2: the best. They've cornered the market on that. They're just
Speaker 2: really fantastic at getting down especially the low to mid
Speaker 2: range frequencies, which means like airplane noise, of cars, outside
Speaker 2: traffic sounds, air conditioner sounds. They'll drop that down really
Speaker 2: really well. And then you know, one of the things
Speaker 2: that Bose also has is with these they have the
Speaker 2: built in if you're someone who use a serie, they
Speaker 2: connect to Siri. If you use an Android, they connect
Speaker 2: also to Google and they connect to Alexa. So there's
Speaker 2: one button that will trigger all of those who whatever
Speaker 2: system you use, you can also get those.
Speaker 1: It's certified for all those sort of flexible yeah, and
Speaker 1: not just in one kind of silo there. I also
Speaker 1: know this, there's NFC on here, which I know Apple
Speaker 1: people don't really care about that. But if you have
Speaker 1: an Android, it's really nice because you literally just tap
Speaker 1: your phone to this to pair it up.
Speaker 2: Super easy pairing. Yeah, and that's I know. That's actually
Speaker 2: a really great feature. That is, you know, I think
Speaker 2: a lot of people overlook if you aren't naturally an
Speaker 2: Android person. So that's why I think I like about
Speaker 2: these a lot, is that no matter what type of
Speaker 2: system you use, if you switch around between them, maybe
Speaker 2: you use more one thing at work and one thing
Speaker 2: at home, they'll adapt really well.
Speaker 1: To Okay, but you're paying the price. How much are these?
Speaker 1: There are three fifty three fifty Now they used to
Speaker 1: do that twelve payment plan. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: don't see that advertised anymore anymore. I just bought mine
Speaker 1: out right, but I always saw that in the in
Speaker 1: the ads. But I don't think they do that, all right,
Speaker 1: Lauren Dragon from Wirecutter, thank you so much. How can
Speaker 1: people get in touch with you and the website?
Speaker 2: Okay, so wirecutter dot com. We are also we're owned
Speaker 2: by the New York Times, so you can also go
Speaker 2: through the New York Times. And if you want me specifically,
Speaker 2: if you have specific headphones about questions about headphones, you
Speaker 2: can always find me. I'm on Twitter, I'm on Facebook,
Speaker 2: but just at Lauren Dragon.
Speaker 1: Okay, then an and there's many more picks. We just
Speaker 1: did four, but you, like you said, this is a
Speaker 1: full time job for you. So if you have questions
Speaker 1: about headphones or you want to pick the perfect headphones
Speaker 1: for your situation, you even Lauren even has a pick
Speaker 1: for weightlifters.
Speaker 2: Yes, specifically for weightlifters.
Speaker 1: That's crazy that ge that gets really really specific here.
Speaker 1: So thanks so much for joining me today. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: If you guys liked the podcast, screenshot it and share
Speaker 1: it on your Instagram stories and be sure to tag
Speaker 1: me and I'll share it to my followers as well.
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Damiro For links and pictures and all that
Speaker 1: good stuff on these headphones, just go to my website.
Speaker 1: It's rich on tech TV. Thanks for listening. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.
Speaker 2: Mhmm