Going Wired: Why I Ditched Bluetooth for Vintage-Looking Cans That Actually Sound Better

One thing has really boggled my mind and has never really stopped stumping me even after the development of my frontal lobe, and that's why companies started ditching the beloved headphone jack and free wired earphones that came with every phone.

The world was enamored by the convenience of truly wireless headphones, which has dominated both the audio and even street fashion spaces.

When this AirPods era began, I too was drawn into the idea of a tangle-free life despite everyone initially looking like Minority Report characters (shoutout to Matty Healy from the 1975 for the reference) with these stems sticking out of everyone's ears. In the past decade, the headphone as a companion has evolved into a piece of jewelry too, akin to the likes of earrings and necklaces you can hang on your neck, much like the aluminum/stainless steel Apple AirPods Max that double as a fashion accessory.

It wasn't until recently that I fell back in love with the joys of plugging back in with a tasteful pair of vintage and retro-inspired pieces of tech that forever changed my daily audio and music listening habits.

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I stumbled upon the under-the-radar but also one of the most legendary brands in the entire history of audio: Koss. You may have heard of the Koss Porta Pros and how they scream late 80s and early 90s, attached to zeitgeist products such as the Sony Walkman.

Well, these headphones (and a bunch of other wired headphones) are making a silent comeback along with the iconic wired Apple EarPods, which come at a much lower cost but with a much higher bang-for-your-buck quality to them. I recently pulled the trigger on a translucent pair of Koss KPH30is (snappy name and rolls off the tongue, I know), and boy did these blow my mind both sonically and aesthetically.

The iconic wired version of the Koss Porta Pros

The clear Koss KPH30is

First of all, I got a few gripes and revelations with the entire reliance on Bluetooth headphones. These are eventually gonna die on you since the batteries only last about five years if we're being generous. So, it got me thinking, why should I settle for throwing out a pair of wireless buds/headphones when I could just go back to basics?

Next, the microphones for about 90 percent of all Bluetooth or truly wireless headphones are usually a muffled mess compared even to the formerly free Apple EarPods with a built-in microphone and volume-control rocker that we have taken for granted. The Australian YouTuber and professional drummer DankPods often says this simple yet profound fact about all of these cans: good headphones stay good forever, even if they were made in a bygone time.

You kind of miss out on how music is supposed to be heard and how the artist intended, since a lot of the affordable truly wireless options have overly-emphasized bass responses or the "booming" sounds in a song that make things more exciting to listen to.

So how did I wean off the seductive pull of wireless convenience? Well, it was when I read more into Koss and how the Porta Pros were making a comeback in line with youngsters getting into pursuits involving tech from the 90s and the 2000s, the same ones who have modest to impressive vinyl record collections.

I did a little more digging into Koss and found another one of its headphones that were getting a lot of love from the crevices of Reddit and audio forums: the Koss KPH30i in clear, which had a much more spacious, balanced, and clear sound profile. If you're like me, we're sick of the overly-emphasized bass and "consumer-friendly" tuning of most wireless headphones unless you're willing to spend a little bit more dough for what decent wired headphones offer at a fraction of the price.

I picked up my Koss cans for just about P2,000, compared to the P15,000 price tag of many of the standard and popular truly wireless headphones, which have subpar microphones and aren't built for longevity. Of course I had to go head and pick up a USB-C dongle for my iPhone since they killed the port just a couple of moons ago. The Koss' built-in microphone sounded levels clearer than most of the Bluetooth options you would find today, since wired headphones don't have to go through the Bluetooth hoops riddled with latency and compression.

These also have an organic "transparency mode" since the cans have an open-back design, which have tiny vents that make for a much wider soundstage since air from the outside world still passes through the headphones, doing away with the claustrophobic nature of having something rammed into your ear holes or completely sealing off your ears.

For people who have never heard a well-tuned pair of headphones or earphones with an open-back design, it is really like finding a new wrinkle to music enjoyment and would encourage you to listen to more types of music since these songs just feel more alive. What we're talking about here is that you hear more of the music, the vocals, and other details that you otherwise would have missed from your favorite tunes.

You have probably heard of stuff like "super clear bass" or booming bass when you look for what to buy in headphones nowadays, but what are you actually hearing in music? First you have the bass, which consists of sounds like the kick drums, bass guitars, and the other components that make things go thumpy. Next are the mids, which is where the vocals live along with most of the other instruments or what gives life to music. Lastly, we got the highs that contain cymbal sounds, breathy vocals, and other sparkly things in songs.

A good pair of cans that have the bass, mids, and highs in order make music sound like they have more "air" and "sparkle" in them since most of the conventional bluetooth options roll off one of these areas in favor of thumpiness or just the vocals.

Bluetooth as a medium to relay your music often has to compromise with compressed audio in return for convenience, which is also why the mic quality is usually also much more muffled on your AirPods compared to your cheapo-wired buds.

We've grown so accustomed to the "good enough" sound attached to the budget wireless options, when brands with much more legacy and are actually focused on mainly audio still stand by their stuff from the 90s that still sound and look better than the rest of the flock out there.

I'm not entirely ditching wireless, since I still use these for working out since they are ridiculously more practical than having a wire dangle while you lift or run.

You may think that I'm being a bit snobby over here, and I probably listen to music for longer periods of time than the average person, but it's more on going back to things that just worked better and weren't wasteful on a daily basis.

In the vertical age of having insane screen time averages and scrolling all of our problems away and frying our dopamine receptors, injecting a bit of practical nostalgia and bringing back the wire could be good for us.