Headphones or earbuds, wired or wireless — here's what our readers prefer

Wireless is the way to go these days.

What you need to know

• More of our readers prefer wireless headphones.
• Wireless earbuds came in second place with 30% of votes.
• Wired earbuds were a distant fourth, behind wired headphones.

Over the weekend, we asked if our readers preferred headphones or earbuds and whether they go wired or wireless. The question was sparked by an article from The Wall Street Journal about how all the "cool kids" have been spotted rocking wired earbuds. The report highlighted potential reasons for this during a time when wireless is all the rage, from pricing, to warding off unwanted conversations, to the "I'm too cool to keep up with tech" attitude.

Interestingly, our poll shows that our readers are much less interested in wired earbuds, with less than 10% of the votes. Wireless reigned supreme with more than half of the votes between headphones and earbuds, leaning largely towards the former.

For many of the comments, readers seem to switch between different types depending on what they're doing, with headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM4 or Bose QC35 II as a popular option when indoors and earbuds more popular when outdoors:

It all depends on what I'm doing. For gaming, I prefer comfortable, over ear headphones. I use earbuds for basically everything else

- Gamer Dad (@GamerDad2020) November 21, 2021

Of course, not everyone prefers wireless due to audio quality, but for others, it's all about the convenience of carrying them around, especially with the best wireless earbuds. Plus, you have the added benefit of not having to mess around with tangled wires and shorts.

If you're in the market for excellent wireless headphones, you can score $100 off with Sony WH-1000XM4 Black Friday deals , which are among some of the best Black Friday headphone deals you'll find right now.

Exceptional soundSony WH-1000XM4

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It doesn't get any better

Despite their forgettable name, the Sony WH-1000XM4 are far from forgettable. They feature a great design, fantastic audio, and a long-lasting battery for endless listening.