Many wired headphones have a little control thingy with buttons on the wire. Four pin aux connectors support control signals. If your headphones have a detachable aux cable I suppose you can just replace it with cable with controls.

Do computers come with such jacks? I can't seem to recall having seen one. However, all my pcs understand vol up/dn play pause/prev/next from my BT headphones.

The touch functionality is useful until it isn't. My Pixel Buds will activate touch controls randomly and unnecessarily all the time when I'm trying to use them in bed, from the contact with the pillow or sheets. Drives me nuts.

But also, I don't think it's either/or for most people. I use both wired and wireless headphones all the time depending on the use case. Wired sounds far better and is more reliable, wireless is more mobile. Different use cases.

> I just wonder if wired fans just never skip forward a song, or adjust the volume.

This has been a thing in wired headphones since at least 2007 lol

Tons of wired headphones have little controllers on them to change songs and pause.

Hah, just shows how out of touch I am. Has ANC disappeared as a wired earphone feature? I keep meaning to shop for a new all-purpose pair with ANC, duplex audio, and either USB-C input or an adapter for that. But, I keep procrastinating. I don't have any headphones that work with my phone since the analog port disappeared.

I can point to the shelf with my Sony wired ANC ear buds, which I bought years ago specifically for ANC during air travel, in the era when I would use my iPod and later an iPod Nano. The ones I have are the second pair, bought after the first was accidentally left on a plane. I think they were different product generations, a few years apart. These are so old, they are purely stereo headphones. Microphones for duplex audio hadn't become pervasive yet.

These stick in my ear with little silicon flanges and have a part that sits outside with the microphone. Then there is a small control module sitting at the junction of left and right ear wires, which holds a AAA battery and has a power switch and a pass-through audio button (which always seemed more gimmick than utility to me). In their active mode, they also don't demand much of the source device.

by definition you're literally within 2 feet of the device playing the music; how hard is it to use your device to do any of that and more?

I bought a tiny lapel clip Bluetooth receiver that has buttons and a headphone socket. Charge over USB, pair with phone, turn any headphones into Bluetooth. If the battery runs out, plug the headphones straight into the phone.

However, the noise cancelling gap is real. I'd kill for wired IEMs with an inline battery + buttons, and noise cancelling mic & circuit in the earpieces.

Closest is the Sony cans, which have wired mode (ie: they have a tiny jack, so you can use them passively) but I don't think they cancel noise when using them that way

I have some Sony headphones from a decade ago with a detachable cable. Noise cancellation works just fine when wired, and you get better battery life since the Bluetooth part isn’t active. The only time you can’t use noise cancellation is when it’s charging (Micro-USB, doesn’t do audio over USB in case you were wondering).

Re: noise canceling... recently got a pair of IEMs (Etymotic ER2XR) with good foam tips and their isolation blows away any ANC I've ever tried. The only thing is noise from touching the cable but that was solved with some ear hooks to put the cables behind my ears.

Yeah, Etymotic headphones were my go-to for probably a decade. Passive noise suppression was wonderful for public transport.

The utility has dropped tremendously though, now that headphone jacks have disappeared.

Would love to have a pair of "direct-USB-C" Etymotics.

Maybe a bit clunky but there exist some very good and tiny DACs/dongles now (and have seen a couple creative cases/riggings that present the jack in a good/manageable way)

Qudelix 5k (portable dac/amp) has weak anc / passthrough mode, only in Bluetooth mode.

Other advantages: for music production, wired studio headphones don't have lag - also wired with mic is crucial for video games for same reason

Probably an exaggeration? But I hope that tapping for pause isn't critical for anyone's daily life.

I use wireless headphones and in fact never use this feature (I have it disabled). Too unreliable when there's a large screen with a big pause and skip button within reach.

Or ever do anything in parallel with listening. I’ve been working in my garden and went to a shed that’s like 15 meters away from my home only to notice that I’ve forgotten to take my phone with me - music never stopped.

I use a pocket for this scenario.

That was solved long ago with invention of pockets.

My favorite way to work in the garden: with a slab in my pocket and a cord around my neck.

but it WILL cut out if you go far enough. wired headsets wont

You are right, in the past we never skipped a song or adjusted volume, just went with what came out of the factory and what was playing at the time. Those buttons on the device itself were for show.

Many have a small box on the cord with those controls, and you could argue that's handier since it's closer to where your hands naturally are at any given moment.

I just tap a button on the thing the headphones are plugged into. The cable isn't so long that it's ever out of reach.

Many wired headphones have buttons and wheels too. We've been adjusting things via them for so long lol.