I have an older pair of Plantronics headphones (from 2018) and honestly there’s nothing wrong with them. They still sound good. I replaced the earpads maybe 6 months ago because the originals wore out and split open. But now they’re as good as new.
The only reason I think of upgrading to something more current is because they charge with the old school micro USB (the kind that has 2 pins on one side) and everything else I own charges with USB C. It’s annoying that I have to keep an old school micro USB cable because that’s the only way to charge the headphones but it feels like a waste to get rid of them and upgrade to something with a USB C charging port.
What should I do? Quit whining and get rid of the Plantronics for something current? Or should I just ride with the Plantronics until the wheels fall off?
Buy micro to c converter and leave it plugged into the headset. Then you can keep the headset and charge it with whatever you got to hand.
I’ve done this with an old pair and works fine. It may be worth noting that I have had a few of these adapter’s fail over time. So if OP takes this solution, I would not recommend permanently fixating the adapter to the headphones (e.g. with super glue)
There’s surely a story there?
He affixed an adapter with super glue and it failed.
Oh my gosh, what a rollercoaster of a story.
He came to a sticky end.
I don’t believe you
Why would anyone think this was ok to do
A single moment of madness.
I want to suggest studio monitors but any headphones you’ve worn out the earpads on and then wanted to replace them instead of just buying a new headset is a headset worth keeping a dedicated cable or 2 for.
I had to replace my headset because the plastic casing was breaking all over. Only 2-3 years. OP should definitely keep those until they fail.
My oldest pair of headphones is a pair of Sennheiser HD650s that I bought over 20 years ago. Their headband snapped a few years back, but I was able to track down a spair. They recently got a fresh pair of pads too, but have otherwise been going strong. They have gone through a bit of a boom/bust cycle of usage and are currently seeing near daily usage again.
Personally I would wait till the wheels fall off. Consider it like this: if your existing headphones work fine, would you pay the price of the new headphones purely to not have to use the cable again. To me that seems like a waste of money, but it is your money and who I am I to tell you how to spend it? If you were thinking of upgrading them anyway, regardless of the cable situation, then I would maybe consider it. It seems a lot of money when you can just unplug the micro usb and swap the cable to usb c, which takes maybe 5 seconds? Only if you are charging on the go, with other usb c devices then maybe it makes sense.
Not what you were asking, but I’d like to highlight for others that you replaced the earpads on your headphones.
I wasn’t aware that this was a thing for a long time, but they’re often the thing that goes first, and for many headphones, inexpensive replacement headphone pads are available. They may even be preferable to the originals (e.g. maybe you want puffier pads, or a velour instead of pleather surface, or whatever).
I’d keep the headphones until they break and then replace. You can get a couple of USB-c adaptors and keep ithem with the headphones or in places you frequently charge. It’s still inconvenient but a bit more flexible than having one specific cable you have to fine and use all the time, and the adaptor can’t be confused for anything else so will make the whole charging process a little more straight forward (less fumbling with cables to check it’s the right one).
I wouldn’t buy new headphones just for that.
I have an Sony XM3 and I decided to get an XM5 as I wanted a headset permanently next to my PC and a set for travelling / commuting. Plus I wanted an upgrade because the reviews were so good. To be honest I still much prefer my XM3s, and wish I hadn’t bought the XM5s. They’re good but the build quality and design isn’t quite as good and the noise suppression isn’t that great really (I find sound from fans leak through a lot which is very annoying).
My point is, if you have headphones you like and are comfortable with I wouldn’t rush to give them up as newer isn’t necessarily better. Wait until you need to ad then get something good.
As someone who recently “upgraded”, I agree. My prior pair of headphones are nearly as good as the new pair and have some functionality that just isn’t offered anymore (lots of physical buttons).
I’d view it as the longer you can keep using the current pair, the longer you can save money towards the eventual replacement.
You could get an adaptor and only keep the usb c cable. If the headphones themselves are good I wouldn’t change them just for that.
check out magnetic charging cables. you could but the microusb dongle in your headphones and then never think about it again, just connect the magnetic cable to the dongle whenever you need a charge. I do that with my gaming headset and it works great for me
I have a pair of Plantronics 8200UCs that I very recently bought pads for. The first set lasted me since October 2021, so I should be good for a while again. They sound pretty good for music, support multipoint (multiple devices pairing) and aptX HD, have a dongle for teams certification, they support sidetone, their voice feedback is fantastic (muted prompts, etc), and have good physical controls (power switch, dedicated mute button, play/pause, ff/rw, volume, answer/hang up, etc). I wish they had a slightly better microphone and better ANC, but they largely get the job done.
I went down the headphone rabbit hole this holiday season and other than better ANC and transparency mode, which the 8200s lack completely, it turns out that I really wasn’t missing out on much.
So: keep them, unless there’s a very specific reason to ditch them.
Keep until the wheels fall off!
I am in a similar situation, I have a pair of Bose QC35 II as my main headphones, they still sound brilliant, are comfortable to wear and have a decent battery life, but they use Micro USB, I have a decent charging setup, a dedicated Micro USB cable from a big USB charger.
I want a new pair of QC SC from Bose, but they are expensive, and I don’t like that the earcups are plastic while my QC35 II’s has metal earcups, I can afford the QC SC without any issue, but it just feels wrong to buy new a new pair of headphones when the old ones still work.
Well, if you know someone who doesn’t have a nice pair of headphones, you could donate the old pair to them.
Personally, I think unless you’re after a specific feature that the new headphones have (like, I really wanted multipoint Bluetooth on a pair of headphones so that I could use my phone and laptop at the same time), I’d probably keep using the old ones. Old headphones are still pretty good.
I remember seeing a mobile phone cable section in a servo there were one cable had 3 heads that could be changed as needed. Dunno about whether they also do data though. So buying a combo cable could be a solution.
I’m in the same boat, but with another brand. So far I’ve replaced the battery and the ear pads. It’s a point of pride that the thing is still rocking.
