Beyerdynamic refuses to let neck pillows die with their new Blue Byrd earbuds

True wireless earbuds may be reigning supreme when it comes to portable listening, but Beyerdynamic hasn’t forgotten about them. last A kind of wireless earbuds. It’s new In-ear headphones from Bluebird ANC They are neckband headphones, aka neck earbuds, aka in-ear headphones with a wire running between your ears that are still technically “wireless” because there’s nothing that actually connects them to your phone.

The new Blue Byrd earphones are an upgraded version of the 2021 second-generation model, now with active noise cancellation support and transparency mode. Turning on ANC reduces battery life from 14 hours to just over eight hours, and charging still takes place via USB-C, with a 10-minute charge getting you two hours of listening.

The headphones may sound less sophisticated than true wireless earbuds, but they do have their advantages. Eight hours and 15 minutes of continuous listening with ANC turned on is better than you’ll get from a lot of true wireless earphones (although Sony’s WF-1000XM4 gets closer to eight hours of playback). Then, when you need to charge them, you have the certainty of actually plugging in the USB cable instead of occasionally finding that the earbud didn’t charge because it wasn’t properly seated in its charging case. And, of course, it is unlikely that a tie will fall into a bowl of dishes during washing.

In terms of other specs, the Blue Byrd ANC looks mostly identical to the non-ANC model it came with. There’s support for Qualcomm’s AptX Adaptive codec along with AAC, and Beyerdynamic also uses Qualcomm’s cVc technology to cancel background noise and call echo. There’s an IPX4 rating for protection against light splashes of water as well as built-in Alexa support, Google Fast Pair, and Apple’s Siri voice assistant.

Beyerdynamic Blue Byrd ANC is available starting today for $149.