Fairphone just released the most repairable wireless earbuds we’ve seen to date, the aptly named Fairbuds. After years of dealing with glued in and unrepaira...
I think nobody would be surprised here, but it’s still well deserved!
The PineBuds Pro are open firmware capable ANC wireless earbuds. Some of the notable features include their light weight, 3 Microphones, ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), ENC (Environment Noise Cancellation) and high fidelity 6mm speaker. It is a fully community-driven side-project which anyone can contribute to, allowing you to keep control of your device even though hardware is proprietary.
From what I can see the Pinebuds have two firmwares available, one is source-available and the other is open source. Neither support ANC unfortunately, but the hardware is capable of it.
I don’t own one, instead I’m looking at Fairphone’s repairable headphones, the Fairbuds XL. Those don’t have any firmware available at the moment, but people over on the FP forums appear to be making progress reverse engineering them.
I heard the fairbuds would have sub-optimal mic quality over calls because of their software - would pinebuds have the same issue? I think it’s related to Bluetooth specs, but I’m blanking
The PineBuds are probably worth considering if you prefer open firmware over repairability
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineBuds_Pro
From what I can see the Pinebuds have two firmwares available, one is source-available and the other is open source. Neither support ANC unfortunately, but the hardware is capable of it.
I don’t own one, instead I’m looking at Fairphone’s repairable headphones, the Fairbuds XL. Those don’t have any firmware available at the moment, but people over on the FP forums appear to be making progress reverse engineering them.
I heard the fairbuds would have sub-optimal mic quality over calls because of their software - would pinebuds have the same issue? I think it’s related to Bluetooth specs, but I’m blanking