iFixit has long been the foremost authority on all things repairable (and not repairable) in consumer tech, but as authoritative as their ratings are, there’s one category that remained a blind spot: wireless headphones. Well, iFixit is headphone-blind no more. The arbiters of repairability are now diving into the over-ear audio category, and they just crowned a champion.
According to their rankings, there’s one pair of wireless headphones that scores well above the competition: the Fairbuds XL, which earned a perfect 10/10 in its rankings. If you’ve been paying attention to the repairable wireless headphones space, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The whole point of the Fairbuds XL is that they let you swap everything.
You can change out the ear cushions, the battery, the headband, and the speaker covers. Heck, you can even swap the drivers if you want to. On top of that, iFixit also rates it a perfect 10/10 for giving owners resources on how to do all this stuff, like documentation and actually selling new parts.
It’s not surprising that the Fairbuds XL score so highly since repairability is arguably their main selling point, but what is somewhat surprising is where other major names among the competition stand. Sony’s superb-sounding WH-1000XM6, for example, got a 6/10 for repairability, which sounds bad but is actually an improvement on past models, according to iFixit. In the latest generation, Sony gets points for having the charge port on “its own little modular daughterboard” and for housing the battery in a “screwed-down protective shell” as opposed to covering it in adhesive. The drivers and headband are also replaceable according to iFixit.
Other recent big-name competitors score worse. The AirPods Max 2, for example, only got a 4/10. While the $550 wireless headphones get points for having magnetic ear cushions that iFixit calls “best-in-class” and a mesh canopy that can be removed with a SIM tool, the inside of AirPods Max 2 is less repair-friendly. The battery is buried, there are some adhesive roadblocks, Apple uses proprietary fasteners, etc… Still, it’s much better than Apple’s newest wireless earbuds, AirPods Pro 3, which scored a perfectly abysmal 0/10.
Those aren’t the worst offenders, apparently. Less premium entrants like the Beats Solo 4, Beats Studio Pro, Anker Soundcore Q20i, and Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 all scored a 2/10 for things like soldered batteries, copious glue, soldered charge ports, and headband cushions that can’t be removed without being destroyed.
While most people probably don’t have repairability in mind before they buy a pair of wireless headphones, it’s still nice to have iFixit in the mix, helping sort through the BS. I look forward to knowing just how close every pair that I review is to the landfill if/when something happens to them from now on.
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