After three years of using True Wireless Stereo earphones I think I am mostly done with them and do not get me wrong because they have been great companions but like any relationship we have had our ups and downs. I owned the Bose QuietComfort and the Apple AirPods and the Sony WF-1000XM4 and got them all around the same time excited to join the wireless revolution and they sounded pretty great especially the Bose but they did not last as long as I hoped because the Sony gave up after a year and the AirPods and Bose hung in there for about three years and it all came down to those pesky irreplaceable batteries.

I have always hated throwing away perfectly good devices and the idea of tossing out otherwise functional earphones just because of a dead battery does not sit well with me so I started looking for alternatives and found myself diving into the world of professional audio and stumbled upon MMCX connectors which folks in the music industry have been using for years but somehow I had never heard of them. MMCX connectors let you replace the wires on your earphones so you can swap between regular cables and Bluetooth TWS connectors and even a Bluetooth neckband and I have been leaning towards the neckband option because it is easy to take off and put on without worrying about where to store tiny earbuds and the real magic is that I do not have to choose between wired and wireless when I buy the earphones because I can invest in the best earphones knowing they will potentially last forever.

After rediscovering wired earphones I realized how much I had been missing in terms of sound quality because it took me back to my days working part-time at a music studio some twenty years ago where I used professional audio gear and I did not fully appreciate how good those wired earphones were back then but now having used some of the best consumer TWS earphones for years I have to say wow what poor quality sound I have been settling for. The clarity and lack of distortion in wired earphones is immediately noticeable and it is so much better that I have made it a point to use only wired earphones for music which I enjoy for at least three or four hours every day. I still use wireless for calls and podcasts but for music it is wired all the way.

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