Fairphone's User-Repairable Headphones Will Offer Spare Parts Through Its App (arstechnica.com) 13
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Today, Fairphone, a company known for making smartphones that are meant to last, revealed its take on a user repair-friendly set of wireless, over-the-ear headphones. Like its smartphones, Fairphone's Fairbuds XL have a modular design with Fairphone promising easy spare parts access. However, Fairphone's currently unsure how long it will have parts for the cans in stock. And Fairphone is pulling back from its typical five-year warranty for phones, opting for two years, due to uncertainty around real-world longevity. Modular parts for the Fairbuds XL, which in true Fairphone fashion won't be sold in the US, include a headband cover that pops off to reveal the actual band, a cable connecting the speakers, and left and right speaker modules that allow users to replace a failed driver or wonky buttons.
As of this writing, the 11 modular parts aren't listed for sale, but The Verge reported a replacement battery will cost 19.95 euro, while ear cushions will cost 14.95 euro, and the three headband parts will be 19.95 euro for each. Most of the headset's electronics components, like the Bluetooth 5.1 module, reside in the left and right speaker parts, but Fairphone may start selling spare printed circuit boards, buttons, and microphones if demand warrants, The Verge said. Other headsets have offered replacement ear cushions and head straps before. However, the Fairbuds XL go further by enabling the entire frame of the headband to be swapped easily and encouraging battery replacements. There are wireless headsets with batteries you could manage to replace yourself, but doing so with the Fairbuds XL won't void the warranty.
Further, Fairbuds XL batteries are supposed to be easy to get through Fairphone, which will also sell Fairbuds XL modules through the Fairbuds App available on Play Store and App Store. A big sticking point for user repairability advocates is making spare parts accessible and affordable. Fairphone will also work with customers to provide support or contact with a repair partner if they don't want to perform repairs themselves and accept customers' unwanted components for reuse or recycling, according to The Verge.
As of this writing, the 11 modular parts aren't listed for sale, but The Verge reported a replacement battery will cost 19.95 euro, while ear cushions will cost 14.95 euro, and the three headband parts will be 19.95 euro for each. Most of the headset's electronics components, like the Bluetooth 5.1 module, reside in the left and right speaker parts, but Fairphone may start selling spare printed circuit boards, buttons, and microphones if demand warrants, The Verge said. Other headsets have offered replacement ear cushions and head straps before. However, the Fairbuds XL go further by enabling the entire frame of the headband to be swapped easily and encouraging battery replacements. There are wireless headsets with batteries you could manage to replace yourself, but doing so with the Fairbuds XL won't void the warranty.
Further, Fairbuds XL batteries are supposed to be easy to get through Fairphone, which will also sell Fairbuds XL modules through the Fairbuds App available on Play Store and App Store. A big sticking point for user repairability advocates is making spare parts accessible and affordable. Fairphone will also work with customers to provide support or contact with a repair partner if they don't want to perform repairs themselves and accept customers' unwanted components for reuse or recycling, according to The Verge.
"Fairbuds" are NOT buds FFS (Score:2)
Buds:
https://www.google.com/search?q=buds
No no no (Score:1)
a user repair-friendly set of wireless, over-the-ear headphones.
That still means that I must throw away my non-hackable wired headphones. If they really care about users and the environment, they would not force their users to throw away perfectly good hardware.
Re: No no no (Score:3)
How long will parts be available? (Score:3)
I want to know how long parts will be available. It's one thing to say they can be repaired, but are parts going to be available 5 years down the road when someone like me actually wears them out? Or are they going to be available for a couple of years, then that's it. If you're prone to breaking your headphones every month, sure, it's a great idea.
But my problem is I often wear out headphones through use - eventually the ear cushions fall to pieces, but that can take a few years - will replacement parts be available then?
It's the same problem people had with cellphones and batteries - by the time the battery needed replacement, you couldn't find them because no one's made them anymore as your phone was discontinued 3 years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
I want to know how long parts will be available. It's one thing to say they can be repaired, but are parts going to be available 5 years down the road when someone like me actually wears them out? Or are they going to be available for a couple of years, then that's it. If you're prone to breaking your headphones every month, sure, it's a great idea.
But my problem is I often wear out headphones through use - eventually the ear cushions fall to pieces, but that can take a few years - will replacement parts be available then?
Ear cushions are pretty easy to replace. I have ordered them online, and they seem pretty standard - I've bought them for Logitek Heil, even my Bose BT headphoes. . So that shouldn't be a problem. But yes - you touch on something very important. That length of time. The concept that a device mush be repairable needs a timeline. And unless a manufacturer is going to eschew innovation and only make one type of device for decades, they will have to predict what will need replaced, and produce it during the pr
Re: (Score:2)
True. There are very few parts that you can get for an extended period of time. And they tend to be very, very expensive because someone stopped making them so someone had to warehouse all those parts so their time spent sitting on the shelf had to be included.
Chips - the chip makers understand this, and make automotive chips where they guarantee supply for 10+ years (most chips only last about 2 years - 1 year in production and 1 year as off stock while sup
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There are still replacement parts available for the headphones I bought 4 years ago now.
https://aiaiai.audio/headphone... [aiaiai.audio]
I guess it all depends on what the company you get them from is like. Though, Aiaiai headphones are not cheap, so that might be part of it as well.
Also, the only part I have broken was the cable on mine, I ran over it with my desk chair.
what the fuck do they sound like tho (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The Verge review indicates that they don't sound very good.
https://www.theverge.com/23718... [theverge.com]
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You have a five-digit UID. You are old enough that you can't hear shit anyway.
Much ado about nothing (Score:2, Troll)
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Overall, I actually support right-to-repair laws. But sometimes real life is too complex to be fully described by a single libertarian, techno-anarchis
Re: (Score:2)