Confessions of an Earbud Junkie
Summary
But if these handheld devices become the conduits for all the key interactions in our lives—not just for music, but for news, entertainment, books, conversation, and the rest—there’s a danger that we’ll become addicted to their convenience, and forget the richer world we’ve turned away from.Then I got a little black Jawbone Jambox, which pairs with a phone over Bluetooth and uses a software technique called “binaural audio” to mimic devices with wider speaker separation.I focused on how cool it was that a device 6 inches long could produce a boombox-size noise, not on the fact that even a boombox’s sound is pretty flat.Now, when I listen to the Catalyst Quartet performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations on my earbuds or my Jambox, it sounds as if they’re bowing away on rubber strings through a curtain of Tyvek.There are still times when earbuds or headphones are more appropriate than speakers—like when I’m exercising outdoors (obviously), working at the office, or listening on a plane or late at night when I might disturb neighbors.
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