Beoplay E8 3rd Generation

I've used Bang and Olufsen Beoplay E8s for the last 7 years. There's a caveat though; the first and second pairs fell apart (came unglued, no technical issues). I sent each pair back when it happened (first set was 8 months in, second was 14 months later) and they covered them both under their 2 year warranty, no questions asked. It seems like the latest 3rd gen model that they sent me in 2020 is pretty reliable. I don't use them often anymore, only once every few months for travel, but back when I used them every day biking to class they were generally quite solid despite being taken in and out of the case 10-20 times daily and occasionally dropped from chest height (which is probably what caused the first two pairs to fall apart). Anyway, I think the TL;DR for me is that if you spend enough money on a pair (around $250 for the B&Os) from a reputable brand that despite the disposability of bluetooth earbuds at least the company should stand by any manufacturing errors and set issues right. Also if you're more careful about them than I was and generally clean and take care of them they should last alright despite the inevitable battery degradation over several years. I will add that my brother has been using the wireless Galaxy buds from Costco that were around $120 in 2019 for going on six years now. He also doesn't use them as often anymore, but considering he used to kill a pair of wired earbuds in around a month by bending the aux input or simply twisting them to the point of losing sound in one ear it's a pretty resounding endorsement of Samsung that they've lasted this long. It's also a rare scenario of a wireless product being more reliable for a particular use case. I believe he used them for sleeping which is why the wired ones kept getting bent out of shape, literally.

AirPods Pro 3 and I honestly don’t think it’s close. In addition to the hearing aid feature, they seamlessly migrate across Apple devices (phone, laptop, appleTV). This may not matter if he’s not in the Apple ecosystem. I won some free B&O Beoplay airbuds and had high hopes for them. Sound quality was on par with my AirPods, but they are less comfortable, less compatible and poorly designed in comparison (bulky case, awkward shape).

Let me give a +1 for the Technics. I have Pixel Buds Pro, B&O, Shure SE535, and the Az100. The only 2 I still use are the Technics and Shure, and the Technics are likely 98% of the time. The excellent battery life, charging speed, and sound quality are just really hard to beat.