Bluetooth Headphone Face-Off: Sony wins on sound, but Beats win on usability

I can't stop buying headphones. Since 2018 I've bought three sets for myself, received one set for my birthday and bought or advised on the purchase of two more. I thought I was cured when I bought my Sony WH-1000XM4 over-ear headphones in 2021, to celebrate getting a new job, but just last week I picked up a set of refurbished Beats Fit Pro earbuds, because they were on sale at Woot.com for $100, or half of what I'd pay for new ones at the Apple Store.

It's not like I need them. My M4s give me good noise cancelling for writing, while my first-gen AirPods connect easily to just about every one of my devices. But I persuaded myself that what I really needed was a pair of earbuds for working out, even though I don't listen to music while running and I don't go to the gym at the moment.

On the other hand, now that I've had a chance to play with them, I'm glad I got them. They may have edged out my AirPods, but I thought it would still be worthwhile to do a comparison of all three on certain aspects that I've found are important. So without further ado:

Fit

This refers to how they fit in my ear, or over it, and to how well they stay in place. With regard to the former, the AirPods are clear winners. They fit into the ear canal so nicely that after a while I don't even notice they're there. Their shape doesn't create the vacuum needed for noise cancellation, but that's actually a plus for me (which makes it even weirder that I got the Beats ones, but more on that below).

On the negative side, the ease of putting them in means they also fall out easily. I haven't lost them or had them fall out while walking, but I am constantly checking and adjusting them. Not only that, but when I did go to the gym pre-pandemic, I'd wear them while walking on the treadmill and the sweat would make them fall out more easily.

The Sony M4s (as I'll be calling them from here on) fit over the ears, so the band over my head helps keep them in place. They do create a bit of vacuum, but because it's over the full ears it's not so noticeable. They also stay in place nicely if I'm walking around with them on, but the weight of them makes that less desirable (and I'm a bit self-conscious walking around with them).

The Beats Fit Pros have that earbud tip that I usually hate putting in, but it makes sense for the noise cancellation. Unlike the AirPods, I'm aware that I'm wearing them at all times, but on the other time, I can trust that they'll stay put. I went out walking while wearing them this morning, and I appreciated not having to constantly adjust them. 

One of the reasons I got them was also the wings that are meant to hold them in place in the ear, and those are comfortable enough. If I do find that they're bothering my outer ear, I can adjust them and solve it that way. I have only two complaints: the feeling of ear pressure when they're in noise-cancelling mode; and the fact that when I used my phone settings to test their fit, it said it couldn't get a good fit on my left ear. I'll have to mess with the ear tips a bit, but hopefully I'll be able to fix that.

Connection

I've also noticed differences in how easily they connect to my other devices and how well they stay connected. I've connected each of them via Bluetooth to my iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air and Apple TV. You'd think the AirPods would score highly here, but surprisingly they don't, even despite the ecosystem advantage. They pair relatively easily with each of the devices, though it took a while to get them paired with the Apple TV. Once they pair, though, they drop the connection pretty easily. I've noticed it mostly on my phone, where sometimes the connection fails mid-sentence while I'm listening to a podcast.

The worst, however, is on my laptop. They require an extra step, of going to the settings menu and choosing them for my audio output. This setting just drops out at random from time to time while I'm wearing them, even though they maintain the connection. This happens less often on the iPad or Apple TV, but it's particularly bad on the iPhone, since they're meant to go with you and should therefore be reliable.

The Sony M4s have the most reliable connection, but with an asterisk: I mostly use them with the cord plugged into my laptop or iPad. This makes them way more reliable, but also less portable. Because they're not Apple devices, there's a little extra trouble to connecting them via Bluetooth, and they don't seem to like connecting that way to my laptop. On the other hand, they connect just fine to the Apple TV.

The best overall are the Beats. Right out of the box they connected straight away to just about everything that was in reach. They even did so on the laptop, and don't require me to choose them for audio output, nor do they drop the Bluetooth connection. Even if I wander out of range, they connect right up again when I go back to my laptop. The only time they dropped the connection was when I was listening to a podcast on my phone and set a timer; when the timer rang, they dropped the connection.

Sound

I need to do a full test of how music and voices sound on each of my headphones, but even without doing a full test I've seen a bit of a difference among all three. The other part of this section is noise cancelling, which doesn't apply to my AirPods.

To be fair, all three sets of headphones sound good, certainly compared to the older, wired headphones that came with various devices over the years. One way I measure that is by how loud I have to set my devices' volumes when I'm connected to the headphones. When using the AirPods I have to set the volume on my laptop to its lowest setting, while when I wear the Sony M4s I have to reduce the volume even further, by lowering it in the app I'm listening to: this is the same whether it's on YouTube, Apple Music or Spotify. The Beats, on the other hand, don't sound as good at such low volumes, though maybe this is because of the issue with the fit on the left ear.

Turning to noise cancelling, my impression is that it's better on the Sony M4s than the Beats, both because of the fit issue and because the Sony ones cover my ears completely. The effect also seems to be more subtle with the Beats: when I turn on noise cancelling it blocks out the constant hum of my fridge and the nearby road, while the Sony headphones feel like they cut out the world. Noise still gets through, but not as clearly as when I wear the Beats.

The real test will be next time I fly. I wore the Sony M4s on the plane last summer and was impressed by how much engine noise they cut out. I'll be curious to see how the Beats fare on planes.

The only other thing to note with the Beats is Apple's spatial audio, which they're compatible with. I didn't notice it much when I listened to Apple Music on my laptop, but when I went walking with them I put on some music with spatial audio and there was a clear difference. Specifically, if I turned my head then the music concentrated in the earbud that was facing toward where my body was facing. To put it another way, if I turned to the left, the music sounded like it was coming from my right earbud.

It's kind of a neat trick but not the surround sound I was expecting. Maybe I need to try it again when I connect them to my Apple TV.

Battery

In normal use all three sets seem equally long-lived, though the Sony M4s may have the longest battery life. That could be because they're physically larger, meaning they can hold a larger battery. It could also be that I use them slightly less because they're larger and more unwieldy, whereas the AirPods and the Beats get more use during the day because they're easier to connect and I can move farther from my laptop with them.

The one extreme case where the Sony M4s have done clearly better than the AirPods is on long video calls. I regularly play Dungeons & Dragons, for sessions lasting 3 hours, via video calls on Discord. I usually use the Sony headphones for noise cancelling, and they always hold up well for the entire three hours. For one session I wasn't able to use them, so I tried the AirPods, and they lost their charge after a short time, meaning I had to switch to another set of headphones. I haven't had that happen again, but I'm curious if the Beats would work for as long.

Other stuff

The AirPods have the smallest, most portable case, which is nice, but it also feels more flimsy than that of the Beats. The Beats also have a stronger magnet in their case, which snaps them in place for charging. The case for the Sony M4s, meanwhile, is huge and unwieldy, but that makes sense because they're over-ear headphones, so can't be as small as the earbuds.

Both the Sony headphones and the Beats charge via USB-C, which is nice for most people, but because I'm so locked into the Apple ecosystem I actually find it nice that I can use Lightning cables for the AirPods. This means I can use one charging cable for my phone, tablet, iPod and AirPods, whereas the other headphones require another, special cable that doesn't go with all of my other chargers and power banks.

Verdict

For audio quality and noise cancelling, the winners have to be the Sony M4s. They're a little heavier and more unwieldy, but the sound is clearer and I suspect they block out more noise than the Beats. They're not great for walking around, but they're also not terrible at it, and at least I can trust that they won't fall out.

For everyday use, I'd say the Beats have overtaken the AirPods. They may be a little less comfortable, but I never have to worry about them falling out while I walk, or even while I'm lying down. They also connect to all my other devices more easily, which makes them more convenient and quicker to get started using.

The AirPods will probably remain best for listening to stuff while I'm lying in bed or watching TV or generally staying still. Their sound quality is good considering that they don't have noise cancelling and so don't have to create a vacuum in my ear canal. I also appreciate the comfortable fit, though that fit is probably why they slide out of my weirdly shaped ears.

2022 in the Rearview Mirror

Another year done and dusted, and I'm not sure what to think of this one. On the work front, it was pretty good, as I got more used to how things work at my job and wrote a few reports and blogs that I'm fairly proud of. On the personal side, it's been a process of returning to normalcy as I got more confident with doing things outside the house and coping with the risks of the pandemic. 

There are still things I'm not interested in doing, like going to the gym (although the minute I think it's not a high-risk activity I want to jump straight onto a treadmill), and there are things that I can see my way to doing but haven't yet, like going to the movies. That said, all my avenues to watch movies on streaming are fulfilling my needs so far, so maybe what I need is to buy a bigger TV.

As far as eating at restaurants, I've actually done that to varying degrees this year, reasoning that a particularly good meal or good company is worth the risk of getting Covid. Though I'm quite proud of not having gotten it, and it'd be great to go through this whole pandemic having avoided it - but we'll see.

In terms of my goals and interests and pursuits, it's felt like a mixed bag. I finished my first novel in quite a few years, but then stalled pretty hard on the revisions for it and haven't really written much new stuff since then. One reason for this lack of productivity was games, both video and tabletop, which pulled my focus away from working; another was the telecoms-related blogs I was writing elsewhere, which broke my rhythm when working on other stuff. I'm quite proud of some of those blogs, but think I'll be taking a break from them for the time being (unless I get a nice idea to pursue).

Dating was a bit of a mixed bag, but the important thing is that I got back onto the apps and met a couple of ladies. The important point for me this year will be getting out to more social stuff: not even to meet women but to learn new skills and get into more social situations. I keep putting off my "Practice Spanish" meetup, but that was always okay to check out, and it was useful for sharpening up my Spanish, so maybe this year I'll go back.

Fitness was hampered by not going to the gym, as it limited the types of workouts I could do. Even the ones I could do, like running on the street, were a bit limited by the weather: I don't like to go running if it's rainy and dark, or if it's too hot.

One area where I thought I made some good strides this year was in traveling. Apart from the three drives down to my mom's house in Southern California, I also got in a ski trip with my dad and my first flight to Italy since the start of the pandemic. Both were good for calibrating my sense of what's okay to do outside the house, and the Italy trip reawakened my desire to travel the world. I'd like to get to Australia this year, for example, so hopefully I'll be able to swing that.

In terms of media consumed, very little stands out. Among TV shows, the only standouts were Andor on Disney+ and We Own This City on HBO Max, though watching season 1 of Fargo on DVD (from Netflix) was also quite fun - it's just not a new thing from this year. I also really liked Star Trek Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, both of which did good new things with Trek that have been missing from Discovery and Picard (which I felt fumbled its second season, if not as badly as Disco).

There was also Sandman, of course, which I talked about here. The main thing that came out of that was that I bought the collected editions and reread the comics. It's funny how I appreciate the stories and themes a little better, or at least differently, now that I've lived a bit compared to when I first discovered them at 13 or 14 years old.

As far as movies, even less stands out. The one film that does is Everything Everywhere All at Once, which hit a lot of my sweet spots of topics and themes that interest me. Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan were particularly great, especially given the different types of characters they had to play. Much of the rest of what I saw was Marvel or DC tie-ins, and those mostly kept to the average level of quality, with none over a B+ or below a C-. Dishonorable mention went to Black Adam, which wasted a number of ideas about American power and authoritarianism, as well as characters like Dr. Fate and Hawkman and the Justice Society in general.

For podcasts, I liked My Year in Mensa and All-Star Super-Fan, though the latter I technically discovered in 2021. Still, I love that they get some great writers to talk about Superman, and it soundtracked some good drives this year.

I also want to reiterate my appreciation for the History of Rome podcast, which finally demystified Roman history, especially in the Imperial phase. My new party trick is listing all (or at least most) of the emperors from Augustus to Theodosius... though maybe I need to go to better parties?

What about the coming year?

I don't know yet what'll characterize 2023 for me, but I want to spend more time cooking more elaborate dinners than just a chicken breast in the oven with a side of salad. I already said that I hope to travel more this year, and one thing I'd like to do more of is work remotely in fun, new places. I want to spend more time reading new books, but I'm also aiming to reread my collection of Paul Theroux travel books. I also hope to spend more time encountering exciting new music, especially since I now have a few months of free access to Apple Music because I bought a pair of Beats earbuds.

More than anything, though, I plan for 2023 to be the year of getting back in shape, getting out of the house, and fixing up medical complaints that have bothered me for a while. The cooking is in aid of that, but I feel I made some progress in 2022 so I want to keep up that momentum this coming year. I'm hoping to come out of 2023 feeling excited and invigorated, but of course, that feeling will come from me, not from external signifiers of success. But those external signifiers never hurt either!

RIP Pele

No sooner do I publish a blog talking about who's the greatest player of all time, than I have to revisit this question because Pelé, one of the game's greatest players ever, has passed away. There was some preparation for this one, because it was announced during the World Cup that he was moving to palliative care for his cancer. He'd been ill for a while, unfortunately, but it was heartening to see, after that announcement, that he held on and communicated to the fans that he was still hanging on. So as I say, it wasn't too much of a surprise that he did then pass away, though of course it's still desperately sad to see one of the greats of the game departing.

In my previous post, talking about who was the greatest player of all time, I talked about how Pelé was the most visible figure even to people who didn't know anything about football. The way I phrased it might have sounded like I had some hipster alternative for the game's greatest player, but I don't want it to be taken dismissively: after all, Pelé was known outside of football because he was a breakout star who symbolized the game and the glamor and romance of the World Cup. In that respect, he's probably even more influential than my pick for most influential, Johan Cruyff.

I also have to confess that I didn't really have much of a sense of Pelé the player because he retired long before I started following the game. I learned about him when I did, of course, even as early as 1994, but unlike Diego Maradona, Pelé came before I was able to hear about relatives in Italy raving about him. Not only that, but some of his game footage doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did: like the very first batch of Dr Who episodes, a lot of those games have been lost forever.

Yet when I did get to see what was there, I couldn't deny it was amazing. One afternoon, for example, I caught the movie of the 1970 World Cup at my grandma's house back in 1998 or 1999, and was transfixed. Along with his teammates, he entertained and played to the crowds while winning possibly the greatest tournament ever.

Since Pelé's passing, I've read a few articles and listened to a few podcasts about his legacy. I think the thing that's stuck with me most from those is how he was seen in the global struggle for civil rights. Specifically, the Guardian compared him to Muhammad Ali, although unlike Ali, Pelé seems to have been in some ways more ambivalent about his place as a symbol. They pointed out that he certainly wasn't outspoken about Brazil's military government, though he later regretted his silence on that topic.

I can't speak to that, especially given the controversies around the Qatar World Cup or the 1978 Argentina World Cup, which I'm reading about currently in a book about Argentine football (Angels with Dirty Faces, by Jonathan Wilson). For someone who lives under a dictatorship like Brazil or Argentina in those years, it's probably not as simple to criticize the government as it is for foreigners outside the country, and if he considered doing so, Pelé must have worried about his family and friends in Brazil, as well as his sponsorships and playing contract. 

Nobody's perfect, and nobody makes the right decision in every case. Yet Pelé symbolized the joy of the jogo bonito, the beautiful game, and every football fan in the world from 1958 to the early 1980s knew who he was. Writing this post, I've had in my head that image of him being carried aloft after winning the 1970 World Cup. He was relatively old by then, 12 years on from his debut in the 1958 Sweden World Cup, but he'd just been part of a team that had dominated the tournament like no other. Even after coming out of retirement he was that good, and so, regardless of whether you think he was the greatest player, he was certainly the King, and we won't see someone like that again.