I’ve tested scores of wireless earbuds, and I’m unconvinced by this supposedly groundbreaking feature

[What Hi-Fi?]

Touch controls are supposed to be the mark of a premium pair of earbuds, so why are they often more of a hindrance than a help?

I’ve tested scores of wireless earbuds, and I’m unconvinced by this supposedly groundbreaking feature : Read more

 

[Mikeyy]

I completely agree with you, I am so glad that finally somebody writes about this! I find the touch sensitive controls on earbuds like Sony WF-1000XM5 or earphones like Sony WH-1000XM3 very annoying. Accidental touch was very frequent for me unintentionally starting or stopping playback or changing volume, which was very frustrating, so I had to turn off touch controls. With the headphones I think it was the very first week when i turned it off, because when watching a movie comfortably laid back on the couch I was touching the surface of the headphones all the time. But with touch controls turned off, sadly these devices give me less functionality, not being able to adjust volume on them, or play/pause media, I have to pull up my phone each time. For several years I have been wishing that premium earbuds and earphones would return to physical buttons.

 

[fenix]

Touch controls are supposed to be the mark of a premium pair of earbuds, so why are they often more of a hindrance than a help?

I’ve tested scores of wireless earbuds, and I’m unconvinced by this supposedly groundbreaking feature : Read more

Is it a premium thing though?
My very budget £25 pair of Mixx buds bought last minute at WH Smith for a train journey has touch sensitive volume control.

 

[cosimo193]

Complete PITA. I've got some TaoTronics ones, some Sony ones and some JBL ones, all with touch control. Not only does random stuff happen when you're inserting them, depending on how long it takes to get them seated, but they all have different actions for volume, mute and next/previous track etc.

Also, none of them are any good; the bass response is terrible, possibly because they just don't fit that well. I think I need longer and/or firmer thingies on the ones that go inside your ear canal, but that means they don't fit in the charging box properly, or ones with bigger bits that sit just in the bit outside the ear canal, but finding something like that is difficult as the reviews never, really address this issue.

A lot of the time I just revert to my 20+ year old wired Sony ear buds (pre-in-ear ones), as they still sound great and I get good bass response from them.

 

[Friesiansam]

no sooner were we removed from that particular metaphorical frying pan than we were launched straight into the joy that is the Black Friday deals period. It’s been all go, as they say.

How about not banging-on about Black Friday so much, that'll reduce the workload. Amazon have their own marketing department...