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?
Because it needs an extra dongle that isn’t free and most headphones use an ordinary audio jack.
Charging while listening.
And above all, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Exactly, most headphones that I like are wired with an ordinary audio jack. I don’t really feel inclined to get new headphones for a new phone, and a phone without an audio jack just makes things more difficult for me.
You don’t need new headphones though, just the usb-c adaptor, which you can leave permanently attached to the cable (if you only use them with your phone/laptop).
And above all, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
This is actually terrible logic and stifles innovation. The flip phone wasn’t broke…but now we have smart phones with screens.
Just a friendly reminder to folks to keep it civil and to reserve downvotes for things that are inappropriate, not disagreement! 🙂
I downvoted it for spreading incorrect information and being incoherent. Happy?
Touchscreen fixes the problem of maximizing the screen on the device. How does removing a jack port fixes the audio problem?
Condenses the ports to one standard. Instead of an audio and a USB-C, you just have a USB-C. So now you can fit more/different stuff in the internals or streamline the device to make it slightly smaller or thinner. Far enough down the line when most everyone is on board, can remove support for it from the kernel, minimizing the code footprint, attack surface, and code maintenance.
Sure, it sucks now as we’re in the midst of it and people are resistant to change, but fast forward to when it’s universally adopted and accepted, it’ll be better.
But this is almost all false or just speculation.
Instead of having audio and usb-c, now you have usb-c port, usb-c headphone dongle, the finally audio port and usb-c port again. Unless you want to intentionally buy a usb-c exclusive set of headphones that won’t work with whatever next “revolutionary port technology” comes out.
As long as they still work, good headphones from 40 years ago are still good. Headphone tech has not significantly changed. Amps, DACs, etc have, but not the actual drivers.
As far as space goes, reasonable DAC components are getting smaller and smaller while phones tend to be getting larger as people want more screen space. The space savings on hardware here is not significant. Seriously go and look up sizes of the components needed for audio out.
As far as thinner goes, the width needed for a headphone jack is like 2mm more than what’s needed for a usb-c port, and there’s width needed for internal speakers either way. I’m also not sure how much thinner people want cell phones to be at this point. We’re pretty close to the point of sacrificing device drop resistance for size anyway (arguably we’ve passed that point with most people doubling the size of their phone with a protective case). Not to mention that the real thing preventing more thinness is the camera lenses now, as easily evidenced by the camera island bumps all phones have now.
Lastly, you can’t seriously be arguing that analog audio out represents any significant amount of attack surface kernel wise. Like holy shit man. Wow. Yes, technically every line of code is increased attack surface, but it’s a huge assumption that USB-C audio is in any way more secure or less surface.
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Everyone’s favourite old headphones not having a USB cable is likely to be the main reason.
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.
USB-C is getting standardized everywhere now
3.5 mm has been a standard from the motherfisting 1950s
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.
Because all USB C to 3.5mm Aux adapters are flimsy as mother fuckers that break down after two months use. I would not even care otherwise, I never charge and listen at same time anyway.
If anyone has suggestions for adapter that is not made out of thinnest possible wire and is durable, let me know.
Also, I don’t want to buy USB-C headphones, since I would only use those with my phone, I want to use them also on other devices, and for compatibility it is better to have it analog instead of USB-C. If I were to buy headphones for phone only, I would just get wireless.
I often have use cases at work where I have to plug in my headphones to device I am not familiar with, for audio troubleshooting at our customers device. Most of the times USB is not an option, only standard analog audio.
Modern laptops also come with way too few USB ports, 2.0 and C combined, so I rather not waste one for audio since there is no reason for audio to go through USB. On my main PC I don’t use my internal soundcard but external audio interface for music production, and I want my headphones connected to that, not USB.
So in conclusion, USB-C headphones would be totally worthless to me, no matter the device. Even for phone, I rather go with adapter, or just wireless ones.
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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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.”
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Downsides of usb-c headphones:
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Bluetooth security risk surface, exposes your phone to more attacks. (Nobody has mentioned this yet)
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Most/all phones have a single usb-c port. Charging and using headphones difficult
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Usb-c port placement is awkwardly on bottom of phone while must headphone jacks are on top of the phone. Plugging in your headphones on the bottom of the phone with a dongle is awkward.
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The entire process of using a usb-c dongle or using Bluetooth headphones makes the entire system more complicated. KISS (keep it simple). The more complexity there is that can go wrong, the worse the experience. If I’m taking a important conference call, I want my audio to just work.
Not directly related: the whole point of removing the headphone jack was to sell airpods. First apple, then android, and even fair phone. Each time the jack is removed to push sales of the branded Bluetooth ear buds. It’s a user hostile move.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-airpods-success
The excuse may be to save money, Space, water rating, but the reason is increased sales.
I personally still use a pixel 5A which had a headphone jack only because it’s the B tier phone for markets where people are less likely to also buy the airpods.
This is a good example of the general enshitificstion of a service. Make part of the experience worse to drive sales or engagement with another part of the service. Just like Reddit, just like Twitter… It’s user hostile. It means the marketplace is failing
I have a headphone jack and it’s on the bottom of my phone next to the USB?
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Let’s invert the question: what makes it worth the switch? If I’m going to change something, you have to prove why it’s worth, not me proving why I shouldn’t.
And just when you have everything setup with USB-C, here comes the new connection standard, USB-D. Eliminating the audio jack is about planned obsolesce.
- USB headphones require new drivers constantly.
- USB headphones are likely to use proprietary apps for basic features like noise cancellation.
- Audio jacks use significantly less power/processing compared to USB.
- Audio jacks do not hog usb bus lanes, which may or may not be an issue for mobile, but on PC it is.
- USB headphones are in general significantly lower quality, because studio equipment uses 3.5mm or other standard jacks (XLR for microphones for example) as they cause the lowest interference.
- USB introduces overhead latency which is a no-go for production use.
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 need a special adapter to charge my phone simultaneously
Also, I can’t connect it without an adapter to my car, my headphones or my home cinema stereo
There’s no reason to switch.
50 year old headphones are still basically fine except for the port changing.
