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Intel Proposes to Use USB Type-C Digital Audio Technology
- Zekio 10y agoif phones don't get two type-C connectors there is no point to this..
- bsharitt 10y agoThe future will be one port on everything breakout dongles everywhere.
- Zekio 10y agoWell it is gonna suck not being able to charge your phone while listening to music
- wmf 10y agoInstead of metal weights[1], headphones will contain batteries so first you'll charge your headphones and then your phone will charge off the headphones. [1] https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-beats-by-dre-154aae384b36 https://blog.bolt.io/how-it-s-made-series-beats-by-dre-154aa...
- pritambaral 10y ago/s ?
- wmf 10y agoPersonally I think this is a terrible idea (I already have too many things that need charging and charging a battery from another battery is inefficient) but I predict that it will happen. (BTW, does anyone know what happens when you plug two battery-powered USB-PD devices together? How do they decide which direction power should flow?)
- deegles 10y agoNot to worry, by the time USB-C headphones are ubiquitous all that battery tech we keep hearing about will have made it to phones. :)
- ElijahLynn 10y agoNo, the future will be at least 2 USB C ports on every device.
- ianburrell 10y agoI think USB Type C on top and bottom of phone would solve the eternal debate between those who want audio port on top or bottom. And provide more ports which will be important for all the uses of USB Type C. Wouldn't need the splitter dongles for providing power like with OTG or HDMI adapters.
- sp332 10y agoSo now instead of buying a single DAC in my phone, I have to buy a DAC for every set of speakers and headphones I ever want to plug in to it?
- derefr 10y agoComing from the reverse perspective: now my expensive wireless bluetooth headphones will make use of their own good DAC all the time, instead of relying on my phone's crappy DAC whenever I plug them in directly.
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago> expensive wireless bluetooth headphones will make use of their own good DAC all the time. Thank god. Otherwise you'd miss out on the subtle nuance and coloration from the compression artifacts that you can't enjoy with 19th century headphone technology.
- plaguuuuuu 10y agoYou can already use your own DAC with smartphones.
- sp332 10y agoHow does that work?
- nordsieck 10y agoYou plug it into the USB port.
- makomk 10y agoOn Android phones that support USB-OTG (most of the better/more modern ones) you can literally just plug a standard USB DAC into the onboard USB port. Honestly, it shouldn't be that hard to just include a decent onboard DAC and headphone amp these days though - Sandisk's MP3 players and Allwinner's range of ARM SoCs have even managed to integrate both on the same die as the main CPU no problem.
- _wmd 10y agoInitial steps toward DRM on the audio path?
- danarmak 10y agoFrom the article: > The MPUs will also support HDCP technology, hence, it will not be possible to make digital copies of records using USB-C digital headset outputs.
- TheOtherHobbes 10y agoDRM on the audio path has been attempted since the earliest days of PC soundcards. It took the industry a little too long to work out that anyone could route a CD signal to the Record Input inside most typical PC soundcard mixer apps. Once they did work it out, that option disappeared. DRM killed DAT as a consumer format back in the early 90s. In fact there were DRM attempts on vinyl and tape, but it's impossible to make inaudible analog DRM, so they never caught on. The bigger problem now is the move from files to streaming services. If you sell someone a file - downloadable or on CD, it doesn't matter - they can always torrent it. If all music is locked inside streaming services, they can't - at least, not easily.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- okasaki 10y agoUSB seems a lot more flimsy than 3.5mm.
- PhasmaFelis 10y agoIIRC, USB-C is supposed to be the most resilient USB to date (in terms of average plug/unplug cycles before failure). Too early to say if that's actually true, or how that compares to 3.5mm in any case, but it's not impossible that it's comparable--especially since USB-C finally eliminates the "try to jam it in the wrong way 'round" problem.
- pritambaral 10y ago> the most resilient USB At the cost of the devices it's supposed to connect together[0]. When you have to think about having to add cryptographic signatures and verification to cables[1], I cannot see the connectivity standard you built as safe. 0: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XDBFUD9CTN2R/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XDBFUD9CTN2R/ref=cm_cr_rdp_p... 1: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2016/04/13/usb-type-c-auth/1 http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2016/04/13/usb-type-c-...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- leaveyou 10y ago>Industry signaling a strong desire.. Is this the same industry that gave us the HDMI "blessing" ? "The headphones, audio cables and the jack adapters are too cheap.. We can solve that !"
- sliverstorm 10y agoHDMI does have nice features, like ARC and CEC. (I'd rather use DisplayPort though)
- pritambaral 10y agoNeither of which require DRM, I'm sure. HDMI causes a lot of problems (and price increases) because of HDCP.
- stordoff 10y ago> HDMI causes a lot of problems (and price increases) because of HDCP. And the way around it (in the specific case of HDCP) is often to buy cheap, probably non-standards compliant equipment, which isn't a good situation for anyone. I recall reading that the VitaTV had HDCP, yet I hadn't encountered that issue. Turns out the HDMI switcher I was using (the cheapest one I could find on Amazon with two outputs) was just stripping it off.
- pritambaral 10y agoThen you got lucky. If that practice was pervasive, 1) honest people wouldn't face as many issues with HDMI; and 2) the Hollywood DRM-lobby would go crazy on manufacturers
- patrickk 10y agoCEC is really fantastic. For Raspberry Pi media centers connected to a TV, your TV remote just works without any additional setup. Previously, it was a massive pain in the ass to set up key mappings with a bluetooth keyboard, fiddling around with OpenElec config files over SSH until it supported the keyboard. It also means the media centre is non-geek usable.
- tremon 10y agoIndustry signaling a strong desire to move from analog to digital Which industry would that be, I wonder? The audio hardware industry, or the content creation industry?
- cstavish 10y agoThis is ironic. It used to be the analog medium that had a sort natural copy protection built in.
- cornchips 10y ago"Industry Signaling a strong desire to move from analog to digital"... which "industry"? "New digital audio needs to offer significant value at higher end" ... Intel market segmentation at its finest. Long rein analog. Looks like they missed a few groups in the job cuts.
- Zekio 10y agoApparently Apple and a Chinese company is the whole industry.
- c0nfused 10y agoWelp. Here is to hoping for AMD's zen. USB audio is nice but it's also nice to not have to buy a new headset or new DAC for my new box. Edit: spec says analog audio over usb so, there's that.
- Sephr 10y agoUSB-C has an analog audio output mode (audio adapter accessory mode which uses the device's internal DAC), so you won't have to do that. There will eventually be passive USB-C→3.5mm cables for use with analog-only headphones.
- sp332 10y agoDo you have a link for this? I've never heard of it but it sounds cool.
- Sephr 10y agoHere's a screenshot of part of the relevant section from the USB-C spec: https://i.imgur.com/y6xCS9u.png https://i.imgur.com/y6xCS9u.png
- cnvogel 10y ago> The headset shall not use a USB Type-C plug to replace the 3,5mm plug. So, the only sane way to connect an analog headset to a mobile phone is forbidden by the spec... Assuming I had a phone with a Analog-Audio-USB-Type-C capable, I'd like to have a headset that directly plugs in, and for which I don't have to purchase, carry, and loose a separate adapter.
- Dylan16807 10y agoSo attach the adapter and then pretend it's part of the wire for the lifetime of the device.
- pritambaral 10y ago
- strgrd 10y agoI imagine as a mobile device manufacturer you would be pretty excited to get to cut the total number of ports on your device in half and sell high margin cables/adapters/hubs as accessories. Let the dongle wars begin...
- ramses0 10y agoIs USB-C basically the trojan horse for DRM audio? Likely yes, right? HDCP on HDMI out, equivalent on USB-C out?
- JonnieCache 10y ago"Usage of digital audio means that headsets should gain their own amplifiers, DACs and various other logic, which is currently located inside smartphones. Intel proposes to install special multi-function processing units (MPUs) ... The MPUs will also support HDCP technology, hence, it will not be possible to make digital copies of records using USB-C digital headset outputs."
- nalllar 10y agoYet another form of irritating DRM which won't actually prevent piracy. Take apart any device which supports the copy protection, connect to output of DAC, bypassed. /facepalm
- MichaelGG 10y agoAnd just like Apple TV[1], enjoy getting HDCP errors requiring restarting playback several times. 1: Might have been the Toshiba screen it was connected to.
- duaneb 10y agoDunno why you're being downvoted, that's exactly the type of frustrating experience that exemplifies HDCP.
- tacticus 10y agoIt's not really about stopping piracy though. it's about making sure they can sell licenses to manufacturers.
- makomk 10y ago
- Eric_WVGG 10y agoI’m betting on next year’s Retina Macbook to nix the audio jack for a second USB-C. Likely held off because they don’t want to detract from a big wireless earbud launch with the iPhone 7 this fall…
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoMaybe 2016 will be Apple's year of USB-C. A single USB-C on the iPhone 7, two on the MacBook, and USB-C earphones? It could happen.
- akhilcacharya 10y agoThey just released the refreshed MacBook, they'll probably wait for 2017 OR they'll do that on the new Pros that will be announced at WWDC.
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y agoOh yeah, I know about the 2016 MacBook, but I'm guessing they could lay the groundwork for the 2017 MacBook with their other products this year.
- batbomb 10y agoRemember when 2.5mm was a thing for phones that could play MP3s? That sucked.
- cm3 10y agoI never knew what that port was for, thanks for clarifying, really, I'm not kidding.
- batbomb 10y agoSome were just for one earphone (mono) and a mic. Some were effectively the same as the iPhone (stereo+mic). Some had weird adapters for other ports if they just had the earphone+mic version. I think I had one of each at different times, all pre-2007.
- pritambaral 10y agoI wish the industry had moved to 2.5mm back then. 3.5mm is great, it has survived the test of time (introduced in 1964!) because it is so good, but 2.5mm is only better than 3.5mm (except for the manufacturing and migration costs). If the industry had moved to 2.5mm back then, Apple and Intel and the DRM-lobby would have had one less excuse for phasing out analog audio ports today.
- moskie 10y agoIt's recently occurred to me that the prolificness of the 3.5mm audio connector is something to revere. Wikipedia tells that it's been around since 1964, with its fame really coming with the Walkman in 1979. So, a connector introduced over fifty years ago is still in wide use today. How is that even possible? RJ11 phone jacks I think were introduced around the same time, but they seem archaic and old-fashioned in a way the 3.5mm audio jack doesn't. It just astonishes me that the audio connector has been a solved problem for this long, and with all the other advances in tech we've seen.... audio connectors didn't need any improvements. It makes me very skeptical of any replacements. If a fifty year old connector has been essentially flawless all this time, it's gonna be a tough sell to convince me that something else is really needed now.
- open-source-ux 10y agoAn interesting piece about the 3.5mm audio connector from the BBC: The 19th Century plug that's still being used "The 3.5mm headphone jack is essentially a 19th Century bit of kit - it is a miniaturised version of the classic quarter-inch jack (6.35mm), which is said to go back as far as 1878." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35253398 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35253398
- kirrent 10y agoI still remember watching WW2 films and seeing scenes of phone exchanges where people were switching manually ussing the quarter inch jack. It was surprisingly thrilling. I was working during the day at a place where I sold the same type of jack that was in use for similar purposes all the way back in world war 2. I had no idea their history went back so much further than that.
- rootbear 10y agoI have a bunch of old electronics parts inherited from my father, who was a Ham and an EE. There are a few old quarter-inch phone plugs, from the 30s or 40s, in the collection, with classic Bakelite casings. They work just fine in modern equipment.
- batbomb 10y ago
- tristor 10y agoFrom everyone who has invested heavily in high-quality audio equipment over the years and understands the dangerous path to DRMed digital, I say "Fuck you Intel!". We don't want your USB-C. We'll happily stick to 3.5mm stereo analog outputs.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bryanlarsen 10y agoThe proposal includes stereo analog output.
- rbanffy 10y agoFor now. Think DVI-A.
- bryanlarsen 10y agoGreat example. VGA and DVI-I are still supported by lots of new video cards and laptops even though analog video has been dead for quite a long time.
- pdkl95 10y agoYes, it's a great example, because VGA is broken by the newer standards because of HDCP. As others in this thread have mentioned, HDCP is included in this new USB spec. There has been a lot of effort over the years to close the so-called "analog hole" at the end of the DRM chain of trust. The stereo output exists only to distract people during the transition period. The analog out hardware may exist in the future, but the software will refuse to send it any data. This is not theoretical; we already see this with Blu-ray software, where you get an error message if you use a VGA monitor without HDCP. Bonus: with Win 10 forcing updates, once the hardware is common, you won';t get a choice about the update that disables the "analog hole".
- jhallenworld 10y agoI thought Bluetooth was supposed to eliminate the need for the 3.5mm jack...
- KamiCrit 10y agoSeeing how gaming keyboards and mice have gone these days. I wonder if we'll need manufacturer specific software and an account and to access our future audio settings and features.
- revelation 10y agoIt's bizarre. Why would we push the <5mm^2 that an audio amplifier requires in a smartphone into the headphones, where it then inevitably requires local decoupling, a circuit board, power management, something to decode the USB (or can USB-C do analog?) and all the other hassle? Makes absolutely zero sense.
- jws 10y agoThe amplifier in the headphones can be designed specifically for those headphones. It may well be that a transducer with a bizarre frequency response and an amp/EQ that compensates is a better solution in the end. Where we are now, headphones need to have reasonably flat response (or be called Beats :-) in order to be acceptable. Or perhaps a wildly different impedance makes a better cost performance argument, can't go there now, but with active headphones you can. It may be a bit like the powered speaker market for PA gear. You can get light weight powered speakers for not a lot of money that perform quite well. The amplifiers do exactly what they need to for the exact speaker, they don't have to be able to handle whatever mystery load you plug into them. They can build in the crossovers and EQ compensation when the signal is small rather than in the speaker cabinets. Also, noise canceling ear buds become possible when you have power coming to them. Of course, the heap of Apple Earbuds I have whose clickers no longer work doesn't really inspire me about my new active headphone future.
- cm3 10y agoThey cannot be serious. Replacing what works great with all kinds of cheap or expensive and easy to repair equipment with what? Another device on the Universal Serial Bus. I see the point of attaching storage devices, sound cards and anything else that is not simple and needs a controller and logic to USB, but audio output? I do sometimes use a USB headset because it has its own soundcard built-in, but I actually prefer a simple headset with a 3.5mm mic-in/head-out connection. Why? Well, it works always, it doesn't load another driver, and it doesn't rely on the USB bus. USB is nice but occasionally hiccups and resets itself, which is not something you'll see happen with your mic and headphones because they are not overcomplicated. To be totally honest, I'm also one of those who prefers keyboards attached via PS/2 because I've had USB keyboards reset when I attached another USB device to the shared bus. That PS/2 has real interrupts is an added bonus for something as crucial as keyboard input. With all that being said, as long as this happens in the phone and tablet space, I guess I can live with it, but having to carry around an adapter from USB to 3.5mm audio will be a PITA. This is just another, let's change it to make money with adapters and sell new implementations due to bugs in the old controllers and drivers, scheme. Next year, USB power cords, and you'll have to rewire your house.
- dpark 10y ago> but I actually prefer a simple headset with a 3.5mm mic-in/head-out connection. Why? Well, it works always I can say with certainty that it does not always work. If I plug a pair of Apple earbuds into my Android device, the audio up/down do not work. This functionality isn't consistent even within the Android device world. Having a consistent headphone jack that provides consistency here would be a pretty big win. (Even bigger if Apple gets on board, which it won't.) > I guess I can live with it, but having to carry around an adapter from USB to 3.5mm audio will be a PITA Pretty sure the endgame here is that your headphones have a USB C connection on them instead of a 3.5mm audio jack. > Next year, USB power cords, and you'll have to rewire your house. You can already buy outlets with USB ports. They're increasingly common, but thankfully the transformer is in the outlet so you're not running low-voltage wire all over.
- teamfrizz 10y ago
- Sephr 10y agoJudging by all of the comments complaining about DRM and having to buy new audio equipment, it seems like few people are actually reading the whole article. USB-C can support analog audio output via audio adapter accessory mode[1]. In the near future you'll be able to buy passive USB-C→3.5mm cables for cheaper than normal USB-C→USB-C cables. You will be able to use them like any other aux cable. Personally, I still prefer the 3.5mm jack so that I don't need a passive adapter for using my earbuds. Requiring a passive adapter that gives you a perpendicular 3.5mm jack, no matter how small, would be ugly and obtrusive. Fortunately, at least for over-the-ear headphones with a 3.5mm jack, this will at least be much less of a hassle. Passive USB-C→3.5mm cables can just be your new aux cable. [1] https://i.imgur.com/y6xCS9u.png https://i.imgur.com/y6xCS9u.png
- tristor 10y agoWhile it's true the USB-C spec provides for this possibility as part of the extensions to the USB Audio standard, Intel is also discussing an MPU specifically to implement HDCP for audio outputs from the USB-C connector in this announcement. You say we didn't read it, but we read it loud and clear. This is an enabler for DRM that does nothing to help consumers, many of whom have already significantly invested time and money into audio gear that works perfectly fine.
- Sephr 10y agoYou can't DRM standard analog output (and still be compatible with normal analog headphones), which is why I mentioned the DRM concern. Most of your current digital audio output ports already support DRM. S/PDIF, HDMI, DisplayPort, etc. all support DRM for digital audio.
- tristor 10y agoYou're making the big assumption these devices will always support analog audio output over USB-C. There's nothing preventing that from being disabled, and the digital output can definitely be forced to DRM only. We're already seeing this with things like the Lightning connectors on iPhones vs the old Dock connector that had analog and digital signals unimpeded, now with Lightning it requires an MFi certified device to decode the digital signal and no analog signal is provided at all.
- SwellJoe 10y agoI'm torn on this one. I know it's a move to push DRM further out the stack, and that annoys. But, I also want higher quality recording and playback from my small devices. The audio circuitry of one of my tablets and my phone is abysmal; my Nexus 7 (second generation) is nice but I don't have a good recording option. Presumably this audio will be two ways, so if I want to stick an ADC in that port I'll be able to record at very high quality, and if I want to stick a DAC in that port, I'll be able to play back at very high quality. DRM is stupid, of course, and it's just pushing the copying out one more step in the chain (they can't stop you from converting it to analog at some point, because it's gotta be analog to get into your ear holes). And, of course, DRM is made to be broken. Anyway, the 3.5mm jacks on my devices are about 50/50 unusably bad (either they aren't grounded/filtered properly and end up with a variety of noise, or they aren't loud enough, or they distort at modest volume, etc.), so on the whole, I won't mourn the passing of the 3.5mm jack.
- TD-Linux 10y agoYou can already do digital audio on Android, either over OTG USB and normal USB Audio, or via the Android Accessory protocol. Presumably this would work just as well over a USB C connector. Adding DRM is a pure downgrade from this.
- gdamjan1 10y ago> A good thing about USB Type-C headsets with MPUs is that they are going to be software upgradeable and could gain functionality over their lifespan. yeah, unless it never happens, like it typically doesn't :(
- TD-Linux 10y agoMaybe we can rely on the community for patches for headphone 0 days?
- pdkl95 10y ago> > software upgradeable and could gain functionality over their lifespan. That usually means "now we get to ship it broken".
- plaguuuuuu 10y agoI just can't wait to have bugs in my HEADPHONES of all things. Or for them to be connected to the IoT.
- linux_girl 10y agoYou can put _analog_ audio over USB-C, too. From the article: > In fact, USB-C can be used to transfer analog audio in accordance with the specification of the connector. It all comes down as to how that audio is transmitted.
- mlvljr 10y agoSomehow, I prefer "plain" USB for headsets: it's one connector instead of two, and feels (looks) more modern (plus, requires less force to (un)plug). No sympathy for clunky DRM-"enhanced" hw, of course :)
- israrkhan 10y agoyet another form of DRM, for which consumers will pay and corporate will make money, and yet it fails to solve the piracy problem. high fidelity analogue Audio recorders are easily available.
- thescriptkiddie 10y agoWhy would I want a digital headphone jack? Headphones are analog devices, so you're just going to have to cram a DAC into the headphones anyway, making them heavier, more expensive, and DRM-encumbered.
- narrator 10y agoI think this is a sign that technology is stalling. They are grasping at straws trying to get us excited about technology that adds little value for the consumer but drives another upgrade cycle and even removes features that they can sell back to us. First we get the locked down no dd-wrt routers and now this.
- zanny 10y agoWhy the hell does a digital serial bus interface have an analog audio "mode"? I mean, USB-C is already supposed to do daisy chaining, some 100w power bidirectional power transfer, and support video channels over it according to displayport spec. Oh, and its also thunderbolt. Seriously, is this port supposed to cost more than its weight in gold to manufacture, and be such an extreme nightmare to program for we should expect exploits every other Tuesday? I am totally on board with a high bandwidth even parallel standard port for digital data exchange with good power delivery metrics, but all this specificity over how it performs with what data while supporting analog modes is... feature creep, by definition, in my book.
- Sephr 10y agoYou just hook up your existing DAC to the USB-C port instead of a 3.5mm jack, and the rest is just software. It's not like they need to use special circuitry that isn't already in your phone. All phones in existence already have a DAC (or you couldn't make phone calls using the built-in speaker).
- stegosaurus 10y agoThis reminds me of the Game Boy Advance SP and how it removed the 3.5mm jack for seemingly no reason other than to have me buy an adapter. I won't buy a phone without a 3.5mm jack. It just works. I don't need digital audio. My (medium-price-range) headphones sound utterly glorious, there is no utility here. To be honest, I'm not sure whether I'll ever upgrade my 2013 Moto G. It'll probably break eventually. When did I become a luddite? It's like, at some point, things stopped getting substantially better, and just became sidegrades with annoying tweaks for the sake of it. I want my toaster to take... bread. Not tomatoes. Bread is what I eat for breakfast, not toasted tomatoes. :P
- visarga 10y agoWhat is the purpose of making the audio cables digital? We don't need more audio resolution, we are already beyond the limits of human hearing. It's like making phones with 2000 ppi resolution for no practical benefit other than bragging rights. It'd rather prefer we had better wireless audio. Bluetooth is too weak for streaming around the house and has slow connection time, is unstable and generally discourages wireless audio.
- anexprogrammer 10y ago"Industry signalling a strong desire to move from analogue to digital" Industry can sod off. This is about DRM not any consumer benefit. The decent quality is all in the hifi market that's quite happy with jack plugs.
- ohazi 10y agoNo.
- fpgaminer 10y agoAs others have pointed out, this may be a means to foist DRM on the audio output of phones, tablets, and possibly desktops/laptops. But the assumption following that is that DRM is being implemented in an attempt to prevent piracy. That is, in my opinion, not the case. DRM's primary purpose with respect to the video/audio industry is market control. Let's start at the top of the market, the content producers (Warner, Fox, etc). They make a movie/TV show/etc, and publish it to disc. But that disc has encryption on it. So a company like Sony wants to make a device that plays the disc. To do so legally they have to sign a bunch of agreements with the owners of the encryption license. Part of those agreements requires the use of HDCP. Okay, so now the disc is playing, and outputting an encrypted video signal. So a company like LG makes a TV, but the video signal is encrypted. So, they have to sign an agreement with the holders of the HDCP license. But the holders of that license, and the license of disc encryption, are all held, ultimately, by the same media industry oligarchy that holds the rights to the content that started this chain of DRM in the first place. The end result is that the content owners get to use DRM as a means to force all the companies along the food chain to sign agreements with them, and thus they can exercise power over the entire market. Not a single legit Blu-ray player gets manufactured without signing agreements with these companies. Not a single TV, cable box, repeater, receiver, projector, etc. DRM is not a padlock, it's a parasite. The icing on the cake is that it also nets them a tidy profit. HDCP requires both a yearly licensing fee, and a per-device royalty. It ain't cheap. And there are more aggressive requirements if you plan to implement HDCP yourself, rather than using a pre-made device. So you can either use a pre-made device, which is conveniently manufactured by the same oligarchy and is rather pricey, or make your own and suffer further agreements and expenses. Intel is the guy that the media industry hired to create HDCP, and who currently manages it. It wasn't long ago that Intel was gung-ho about pushing video DRM on PC's along with Microsoft. Luckily that mostly died, but here we are again, same story, different day.
- signal57 10y agoWouldn't it still be possible to record the non-DRM analog signal with a USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter? The change would put the amp and DAC inside the headphones. Take it apart and connect directly to the "last leg" going to the analog speakers. If anything, it should be a better quality signal because of the shorter analog transmission distance.
- cm2187 10y agoWhat do they mean by going "digital"? At the end the signal that reaches the speaker driver will have to be analog. What are they suggesting to happen instead?
- justaaron 10y agonot a shred of reality displayed here. the analog audio jack they seek to replace is the final analog output of a digital to analog converter or DAC. one cannot speak of a digital speaker, and a digital amplifier does not usually refer to using the loading of the speaker driver to smooth-out the pulse-chain like some motors on a PWM line... not in any high fidelity audio anyway... where is the DAC or audio codec to be located? are we not just pushing it out to the device and pretending it went away? why the assumption for headphones or consumer audio? what about USBs derived clock and jitter? why on
- rasz_pl 10y agoWe already have strong and widely adopted digital audio standard, its called I2S. HDMI audio is four I2S channels in parallel. Provision pins for raw I2S, or simple usb endpoint decoding into four I2S, but not another effing DRM shit.
- astannard 10y agoIt's a shame that apple to be going with a similar but incompatible strategy: http://www.cultofmac.com/401014/apple-now-sells-lightning-headphones-that-are-super-expensive/ http://www.cultofmac.com/401014/apple-now-sells-lightning-he...
- rbanffy 10y agoHow about the mechanical loads headphone plugs are subjected while the phone is in a pocket and we are walking? I am very sure a USB-C is nowhere near as robust as a mini P2.
- headgasket 10y agoI posted this on a thread about this that should be linked somehow: A true advance, a Jobs and Ives worthy advance, would be to superseed it. Use the 3 prongs of a jack with mic for ground tx,rx,and keep it backward compatible with analog only devices. reply