- Gadhouse launched retro-inspired USB-C Wesley headphones: $68 / £59
- The launch comes days after Google called wires ‘sloppy’ and ’embarrassing’
- Wireless buds typically last 2 years; I own wired cans that are 15 years old
Sometimes a product just launches at a great time, doesn’t it? A pertinent time; an important time.
Now, I could fashion a perfectly worthy news piece just about the Gadhouse Wesley. They are, after all, beautiful new retro-inspired headphones that wouldn’t look out of place over Max’s ears in Stranger Things (or, in fact, in any show set in the 80s).
And thanks to their lovely USB-C wire, they can offer 48kHz Lossless Audio – which is something even the best Bluetooth codecs within the very best wireless earbuds still can’t truly do, but that the best wired earbuds and wired headphones certainly can.
You could also get that level of audio detail using your AirPods Max wired up with their USB-C wire, of course, but Apple‘s 2020 cans still cost a lot of money – $549 or £499 for quick reference. And the Gadhouse Wesley cost just $68 / £59 (or around AU$123). I love the retro-meets-now look of these headphones, and I’ll certainly be buying them when they arrive in September, to partner with my Android.
But this is about something much bigger, for me. In fact, it’s about Big Tech and what Google said at its Made By Google Pixel event on Wednesday, August 20. In case you missed it, I’ll link the two-minute sponsored segment from Kareem Rahma’s popular talk show and podcast Subway Takes, which Google cut away to during its event, here…
Wired is ‘sloppy’? Surely li-ion batteries in buds are sloppier
Where to start? One could take issue with the notion that wired headphones look “sloppy” or “embarrassing” (although the two wires from those mics to get decent voice pickup look absolutely fine, though, I’m guessing?) or the blunt statement that “they don’t do anything that you want them to do”. Actually, mine play hi-res music with virtually no latency, and that is exactly what I want, thanks.
Or there’s the slightly more sinister notion that if your daughter started wearing wired headphones, she’d be “kicked out of the house… until she got some buds in”.
I struggle to believe that, in 2025, we’re advocating throwing away battery-free headphones that might last your child long into adulthood in favor of wireless earbuds that only last as long as the lith-ion battery squirrelled into them. Let me be clear: however good the audio quality and feature-set is, this battery will gradually deteriorate to the point of failure within around three years from the time of purchase, depending on use.
And you can state that earbuds are recyclable all you want (Apple absolutely does affirm this, with its AirPods), the truth is that many buds will still end up in landfill, because people don’t always recycle – and with such tiny components, it is difficult to recycle every small component of a set of earbuds. It can also become expensive, since it requires actual human disassembly.
OK, so Google has announced that its new Pixel Buds 2a do have a replaceable battery in the case, but it’s the batteries in the buds that tend to go first. And let’s not forget, this is a company that has made a huge and much-touted pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. So this clip? Not a good look, Google.
I have been a full-time audio writer since 2019, and I still own three pairs of wired IEMs from that first, glorious year when I decided this was my future and forte. How many pairs of wireless earbuds do I still own and use from that time, six years ago? I’ll give you one guess.