Wi-Fi headphones have been rumored for some time at this point. Correction — more than rumored, we've seen them in real life at events like CES. The promise of top-quality audio on the go that uses your phone's Wi-Fi antenna instead of its Bluetooth module.
So why, then, are we still without a pair of Wi-Fi headphones? Why do I not have a lovely pair of cans that play We Didn't Start The Fire to the best of their ability, instead of relying on lossy Bluetooth codecs and battery-draining sound improvement engines? Where, oh Zeus, are my Wi-Fi headphones?
The Wi-Fi headphones promise
To say we haven't had Wi-Fi headphones at all would be a small lie. The Sonos Ace used a form of Wi-Fi connection to play the same audio as your soundbar so that you can enjoy surround sound without bothering the rest of your house at 3 a.m. It's not going to connect your phone to your headphones, but it does, in some way, work.
It's also not entirely what we were promised. See, there were a few things that we were supposed to get out of Wi-Fi headphones. Better sound quality, for one — not so with the Sonos Ace. Improved connection on the go — unless you're going to take your Sonos Arc Ultra on the go, also not going to happen with the Sonos Ace.
So we do, technically, have Wi-Fi headphones. But not the Wi-Fi headphones we were promised, and certainly not Wi-Fi headphones that give us everything we were looking for.
What's gone wrong? Here are three possible reasons we're so far behind my Wi-Fi headphone dream.
Reason 1: Low adoption
If Wi-Fi connection headphones are real, then you need manufacturers to put the technology in their headphones. Any Wi-Fi headphones we've seen at events have been from smaller brands, as opposed to larger ones — and it's the bigger companies like Bose and Sony that need to buy in for it to really take hold.
You may have noticed, if you've spent any time looking at the best headphones, that Sony and Bose have not adopted Wi-Fi connections for their headphones.
Perhaps, deep within the bowels of Sony HQ, there are some mad audio scientists researching the technology but if so, they're keeping quiet about it.
Until the big brands start to make a noise about this, it's always going to stay on the back burner unless a truly disruptive audio start-up grabs the industry by the scruff of the neck.
Reason 2: It doesn't work
There's another reason that might explain why we haven't seen any true Wi-Fi headphones hit store shelves. It simply might not work — after all, we've seen mockups and devices at CES to show us what we could have, but nothing that we can actually buy from a shop.
Perhaps getting the connection to not interfere with other wireless protocols is causing issues. Maybe stability is a problem, or maybe battery drain is simply too much on the source device?
Whatever the case, it would explain why there are no Wi-Fi headphones that I can buy today.
Reason 3: It doesn't actually exist
Wi-Fi headphones don't exist as we hoped. Perhaps the only kind of Wi-Fi headphones we're going to see are rooted in place, connected to a soundbar or other static device. The dream of latency-free, high-quality headphones on the go remains a pipe dream that I'll keep telling myself is right around the corner.
It could all just be vaporware. I hope that it's not the case — I'd actually quite like a pair — but it's certainly starting to feel that way.
Maybe, in a year, a pair will land on our laps and we'll be blown away by their performance. Or, maybe, they'll finally release and it'll be like Duke Nukem: Forever all over again.
Either way, you can count on me to continue to dream (and to write) about Wi-Fi headphones long after everyone else has stopped listening and gone back to enjoying their music on a pair of the best noise-cancelling headphones they can get.
What do we have instead?
There are a couple of ways that firms have managed to give us something similar to what Wi-Fi headphones promise us. High-quality codecs like LDAC and aptX get close, but they don't give us that completely lossless listening that many audio fans are actually looking for.
USB-C listening gets closer, but it misses out the key component – wireless listening. Then there's true wired listening, with a pair of expensive audiophile headphones and some snazzy gear like a DAC and amp. That's going to sound amazing, but again, it misses that crucial wireless connection that would make Wi-Fi headphones so cool.
So, as far as alternatives go, we're pretty much stuck in the mud. It's only when (or if) Wi-Fi headphones land that we'll see the promise fulfilled — and I'm not sure that it's ever going to happen.
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