Don’t get me wrong. Apple removing audio jack was the biggest facepalm in smartphone history. And you can thank it for not being able to make an upgrade without sacrificing audio jack (and SD card too :/). But USB-C is getting standardized everywhere now (laptops, smartphones, etc.). What makes USB-C earphones not worth the switch?
There’s just exactly no upsides.
Among other things, a USB-C connector is less stable than a 3.5mm jack, and can twist the cable since the connector cannot spin.
Sure, it can do a lot of things, but there’s no reason to break an existing standard if the proposed successor is inherently worse.
I was looking for someone to mention the connection itself. To add to that the connector is a lot more delicate since it’s some
4024 pins vs 3 or 4.AND if my one USB-C port wears out from use, now I need a whole ass new phone now as opposed to “oh damn, well the phone still works without headphones, I’ll suffer for a bit until I can comfortably replace it.”
This is actually something I had once considered too. It’s not that they want to downgrade the port itself, it’s also that they want to downgrade the AMOUNT of it. I went looking for phones with two ports (I was also curious about using a phone as a data bus) and I could literally find none.
This is why when it comes time to decide on a compromise, Bluetooth (and its audio issues) wins out versus anything with ports. Because it’s a solution that doesn’t throw away options with it.
The devices that you describe are incompatible with a standard that has been mature for 50 years.
The 3.5mm jack is everywhere, it is the standard. USB C is incredibly recent.
Put it this way, if you were to walk into a store and pick up any given electronic product with audio output, would you expect it to have an audio jack, or a USB C connector?
In your drawer full of random electric cables, how many have 3.5mm plugs in them vs usb a, micro, mini, or some propriety plug? And how many could you plug into a device and just…work?
So why do you accept devices that don’t have this standard?? It is beyond me.
The 3.5mm jack is everywhere, it is the standard.
Just got a 1981 Sony EQ off eBay, made in Japan, all that! How the hell would I ever adapt USB-C?! I’ve got fittings in the drawer for all things 1/8", didn’t even research what I needed to get this thing integrated with my stereo. Also, it has another gold standard, the 3/4" jack! I can cobble something together for free. Oh! I can also roll my own 1/8" jacks and wiring, certainly can’t “create” a USB-C connector.
OP is stuck thinking digital applications. 1/8" is perfect for analog use cases. USB-C is excellent for charging and data transfer. Very different use cases.
(Disclaimer: I’m no sort of audiophile. Just and old guy with vintage gear, going with what works.)
The fact that there is more than one “standard” for USB-C audio is enough to hate it.
Analog 3.5mm just works with everything. No dongles, no drivers, no “unsupported device”, no batteries.
It. Just. Works.
Uses more power and it creates thermal strain on a single point-of-failure port if you want to both charge and listen to music with a poxy dongle.
All this “innovation” does is create more e-waste.
At least on the Fairphone you can trivially swap out the USB-C port when it breaks. And using it for audio moves that from an if to a when, in particular on a phone designed to be used for at least 5 years.
But that’s okay, since you can swap it out. On any other phone: Fuck USB-C audio! The port is fragile enough as it is.
I’m still rocking my OG Note 8, granted this thing is a tank, I’ve never had to replace the port c charger. (But I also have an aux port) However! Any time i feel like m port is finally dying, it really just needs to be cleaned. Get a little toothpick an try cleaning before you ever replace, 9 times out of 10 it’s just got some gunk or something lodged in there.
When companies began to drop the audio jack I was annoyed, but I figured I could just buy a converter. Which would be great if there were a universal standard for connecting audio through a USB C. There isn’t. There aren’t even just two competing approaches. There are all kinds of different setups that sometimes vary even within a single brand.
I found multiple adapter that said it supported my phone brand. It didn’t work. I looked deeper and found some advice on adapters that would work with more recent phone. I bought one based on that and it worked, sort of. The audio quality was not great and it would occasionally just cut out for a second. My third try got me an adapter that work reliably, but the audio quality is still mediocre. My best headphones are all analog, but I have to use Bluetooth with my phone because it provides better audio.
The physical issues, particularly the connectors, guarantees that USB C will never work as well. The lack of standards for implementing it make finding compatible hardware a nightmare. And if you manage to get everything else figured out you end up with the kind of sound you can hear from an audio jack using a $5 set of earbuds. It provides no benefits to the user, only to the manufacturer.
I am not an audiophile or anything but for these oems a headphone jack inclusion is probably pennys and wired is just superior sound, it’s madness.
That said I use Bluetooth headphones mostly myself but that doesn’t change the fact its inferior sound, something extra to charge and can add quite a bit of lag when playing games or other media.
Its a step backwards just to make a few pennys profit on a hundreds of pounds device. I think everyone should have the option to choose what they prefer.
USB C dongles have potential to be higher quality than your built in-jack if quality is the main concern
Now tell me how many of them actually are. This is just OEMs trying to save literal pennies across 100s of devices by externalizing the cost of a cheap DAC to their customers.
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As people have mentioned, it’s not about saving $, it’s about saving space inside the device which is highly valuable
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Lots of dongles are quite high quality. Apples even sounds good, and Moondrop makes a higher-end audiophile one that’s better than basically any built-in jack. There’s a pretty big market for good USB C dongles (less so for Lightning).
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if you care a lot about audio quality, you might know that the companies always tried to save $$ but using pretty mediocre DAC’s internally
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I can’t charge my phone and listen to stuff at the same time, and my headphone jack headphones work with every device but a new phone. Don’t know why I would want to throw that convenience away all because Apple/every other manufacturer decided we should get rid of headphone jacks.
There are usc to headphone + usbc charger adapters
In my particular case, that setup sucks for my car. The adapter advertises having a microphone but my car’s aux port doesn’t have one.
I would use Bluetooth but the car’s Bluetooth is the worst damned thing I’ve ever had the displeasure of using. It sucks even by Bluetooth standards. The car even forbids pairing/unpairing while the car is in drive, which is great for nanny-stating the morons who try to do that while operating the car but what about when I’m the passenger?! The car’s mostly used for family road trips and that kind of inflexibility makes it a nonstarter.
I know this, and they suck (it’s another freaking cord to carry around in your pockets), and it’s unnecessary in the face of just getting a phone that doesn’t need it!
Lol I charge it either wirelessly or use a splitter. I have never had a problem using usbc or Bluetooth. I have a tablet with audio jack and I never use it. I also have connected my phone to a USB hub and used gaming headsets and other peripherals.
I always hear this argument, but seriously how often is this a problem?
I plug my phone in in the car and when I go to bed at night. Neither time of which I would be listening to music
Many people listen to music and podcasts while driving cars.
Typically through the car speakers though
I can’t tell which side of the argument your response is supposed to fall on…
Yes, people typically listen through their car speakers. Good job. Gold star.
But not all cars have Bluetooth connectivity. There’s still a lot of people who drive vehicles that have to rely on 3.5mm connections (either directly, or with cassette or even CD adapters!). Or maybe their car supports Bluetooth audio, but they prefer the higher fidelity audio that a 3.5mm interface provides vs Bluetooth.Maybe I’m missing something here. But this response holds no water.
I don’t deny that there are a significant number of people that still use the 3.5mm jack when driving
But I believe that the majority of people do not.
Planes, overnight flights is a great example where this becomes a problem
But once again, how often is this a problem? I would say the majority of people are not in overnight flights that often
I relax in my bed and listen to music or watch stuff, and I’d like to charge my phone while I’m close to the socket
you are aware that other people live different lives to you, and do things differently right? I listen to music to fall asleep, and I plug my phone into my car via the 3.5mm jack to listen to music. You ask how often it would be a problem? It would be a problem every single day
Gaming.
Games typically need low latency audio, so Bluetooth is out. Games can also burn through battery, so you want to plug in after a while.
Everyone’s favourite old headphones not having a USB cable is likely to be the main reason.
i dont even use my jack much, i just fucking hate the lack of options. if my headphones are dead i can still use them with the jack, and i can plug into older cars that only have the jack without shuffling around for a dongle
taking away my options is taking away my service with phones, still using my galaxy s9+ till it dies
It seems like you are assuming that the only device that I want to use headphones with is my phone.
I’m a musician. I’ve got tons of audio equipment I’ve accumulated over decades, most of which use a typical analog headphone jack. So if I fully switched to USB-C or Bluetooth headphones, I would need to get a powered adapter of some kind that would then digitize what likely would have been a purely analog signal up until that point, just so it can be re-converted back to analog.
Or I could have sperate headphones just for my phone. Which seems silly.
So I took the 3rd option: got a phone with a headphone jack. The Xperia still has a micro SD card too.
Also I have dabbled in soldering circuits and doing basic repairs. I can easily replace most analog jacks and repair most cables. USB C… It’s possible, and I will try to learn to work with it eventually, but it’s always going to be more annoying to work with because it has many more, smaller pins.
I cant sleep without listening to podcasts & i charge the phone at night so this is one of the reasons why i was reluctant to upgrade my old phone.
When I inevitably had to upgrade I bought a USB C headphone/charging dongle for about €15. All good, I’d been worrying about nothing …Until it broke within a few months so I had to go without podcasts for a few nights whilst I waited for the replacements to arrive (might as well be prepared & buy a spare right?). Guess what? The first replacement lasted a only few months again. So far, a lack of headphone jack has cost me an extra €45 inside of about 6 months. Absolutely ridiculous
Buy the braided cable splitters they are invincible
One solution would be bluetooth receiver like the Sony sbh 5x. Or full on Bluetooth headphones.
- I don’t want to scramble round in the dark looking for a Bluetooth “bud” when it inevitably falls out in the night
- I don’t want to have to charge yet more stuff
- I don’t want full on Bluetooth headphones, I have Sony MDR7506 when I want quality audio & a set of small in ear Sennheiser for nighttime podcasts
The point is, the dongle is simply not a good solution
You can buy a small Bluetooth/3.5mm adapter. I have one for my amp when I want to play music through it. It also works with earphones. It’s about the size of a credit card but obviously thicker.
… and requires you to use Bluetooth headphones that you have to keep charged…
If they mean what I think they do… There are Bluetooth ->3.5 “adapters”… E.g. Bluetooth source (phone), analog output (headphones). Logitech has/had one and it works well.
No. It has a 3.5mm socket. You connect it to your phone via Bluetooth and plug in your headphones.
Then where does it get power from?
It’s rechargeable.
https://www.sony.de/store/product/sbh56ru-b/Bluetooth-Headset-mit-Lautsprecher-SBH56-Frei-sprechen-Gestochen-scharfe-Selfies that’s what I mean. It has it own dac and works as a middle man between phone (bluetooth) and wired headphones
because it’s already compatible with everything
i have a cheap pair of earphones in my pocket (which i’m prepared to lose). another by the door. a more expensive set of headphones upstairs. a speaker in the kitchen. and when i get in a friend’s car or go to their house, i can just plug my phone in and it works without the aggravation of having to pair to their speaker
tell me, oh “you can just buy a dongle” people, what am i supposed to do? buy one and accept that i’ll lose it all the time? buy 5 and keep one plugged into every 3.5mm i own and don’t own?
plus, y’know - takes slightly more battery, hassle to pair, can’t charge and use dongle, all the other obvious issues
Same here - a pair per jacket/hoodie, depending on the season
USB-C is getting standardized everywhere now
3.5 mm has been a standard from the motherfisting 1950s
- I have aux earphones and it needs to work with some extension on new phones.
- Earphone while charging
- Enabling OTG for usb eaphone
Because while we have wireless charging now, one of the key lifetime limits on a phone is wear on the USBc connector, lost many of my phones that way.
On the micro USB connector yes. The usb-c connector is a totally different beast. I have no idea how you are wearing out USBC connectors. They are usually rated for 10,000 plug/unplug cycles.
10000 is not as many as you’d think. I try to keep phones for 5 years, so around 1800 days. I also listen to music on several different occasions a day, let’s say 10 because I listen to a lot of music. Couple that with daily charging, I’m already doubling your number if using audio through USB-C, not to mention the extra wear that comes from the port being in use for around 10-12 hours a day.
