Those of you who know me know that I’m a bit of an obsessive Bluetooth earbud collector. On my desk alone I have nine sets and these are my favorites. The world of earbuds is full of hype and jargon, making it difficult to decide what to buy. This week I’m going to try to address Bluetooth earbuds and unravel that for you. And I’m going to do that by taking you through my wish list of the attributes that would make for my perfect earbuds. No, I don’t expect you to agree with me on each and every item. I’m showing you my list to give you an idea of some of the things you may wish to consider. I can’t do this in priority order because most of my priorities change based on available features.

There are, however, two things that are always top in priority. They must be comfortable. If they’re not comfortable then I won’t want to wear them. Next, they must be “open ear” (or “air conduction”). Open earbuds don’t go in your ears. No, they sit outside your ear canal and send the sound more or less directly into your ear canal. At lower volumes I can easily hear what’s going on around me, whereas at higher volumes they effectively shut out the outside world. Earbuds that go in your ears, even with their so-called “ambient mode” don’t, in my opinion, convey ambient sound nearly as well. Some complain that the sound quality of open earbuds isn’t nearly as good as in ear. If I’m that concerned with sound quality, I’ll use a pair of high quality headphones. And, anyway, isn’t that how speakers operate? They’re not in or over your ears yet they seem to be a standard measure of quality.

Next, although not necessarily second in priority, is multipoint connectivity. That means they can connect to at least two devices (e.g. phone and laptop) at the same time. Some will automatically switch between sources — start music on one source then start music on the other and the earbuds will switch from the first source to the second by themselves. That’s not common. Most require the user to stop the music on the first then start the music on the second to cause the earbuds to switch. At this writing very few give the user the ability to switch between devices via the earbuds companion app. Many will, however, switch sources to the device that’s ringing when a call comes in. So far I haven’t seen any that will play sounds from both sources at once. Why would you want to do that? You could split your attention between a sports event and another show on the other device, lowering the volume on one when a commercial comes on. Yeah, that’s a bit contrived but it’s one use case.

Another attribute I desire are physical buttons on the earbud. Just about every time I put on or take off earbuds with touch sensitive surfaces I end up changing the track or volume so I prefer physical buttons over touch sensitive surfaces. It used to be that you could not find any with physical buttons but they’re becoming more common.

Next: good microphones with good noise rejection. I would prefer to have one set of earbuds that I can use for calls, web conferences and general listening. The newer buds claim to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to suppress ambient sounds. I’m skeptical, but that’s their claim. Some use Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) using methods like having multiple beam-forming microphones that sort of zero in on where the main sound is coming from (hopefully your mouth) and filtering out sounds from elsewhere. Since I have music playing through speakers around my house, it’s important to me that the music isn’t heard by those on the other end of my call.

Next up are the controls available on the earbud. There are only two things I care about: a volume control and a mute button. Not many have a mute button but I prefer it if I can get it. Changing tracks isn’t too high on my list as I’m usually listening to a streaming radio station but it can come in handy when I’m listening to a playlist. Summoning a virtual assistant like Siri or Google also isn’t high on my list. I seldom use them.

Good sound and reasonable volume is sort of a given. I haven’t found many earbuds that have bad sound and most have decent volume that I can adjust. Still, it’s something to consider.

Having the latest Bluetooth version is also a consideration. The latest is 5.3, but unless you have a device that was released in the last year or so, it won’t support 5.3. Not to worry, though, because 5.3, like all previous versions, will work with just about any other version. You just won’t get the added benefits of 5.3. Like what? 5.3 can send and receive data faster (remember, all the sound is digital, i.e. data) 5.3 uses less power so it won’t drain your device nor earbuds as quickly as previous versions. And your devices should enjoy more stable and robust connections.

My last wish list item is low latency. Why? So I can use them to connect with my TV and listen at my own volume. What do I consider low latency? Around 50ms. Just to review a little, latency is how long it takes for a sound to reach your ears. Bluetooth introduces latency because of the processing it has to do to send and receive the sounds that have been turned into digital signals. We covered this in a bit more detail in the column from June 22, 2022: https://go.ttot.link/HeadphonesEarbuds.

Have I found my perfect earbud? Not yet! I have earbuds that do everything except either muting or low latency. For some reason I can get one but not both in the same set of earbuds. No, I don’t understand why no one adds these two features to all the rest. If you know of any, please let me know! Even so, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve found.

That’s all for this week’s column. I hope this helps you understand some of the various attributes of Bluetooth earbuds. Don’t hesitate to write to me if you have questions.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, to sign up for my newsletter, or whatever at [email protected]. Or just drop me a quick note and say hi!

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Tony Sumrall, a Hillsboro native whose parents ran the former Highland Lanes bowling alley, is a maker with both leadership and technical skills. He’s been in the computing arena since his graduation from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in systems analysis, working for and with companies ranging in size from five to hundreds of thousands of employees. He holds five patents and lives and thrives in Silicon Valley which feeds his love for all things tech.