4 ms·

Why not just keep the dongle attached to your headphones?

by laken 8y ago

tjoff 8y ago
That's what you do. But what if you have several headphones? (I can barely realistically buy an extra adapter for my phone, never mind the ridiculous cost) I've got two headphones (good sound or active noise cancellation) that I use and every single day I have to keep extra track of the adapter to make sure that I didn't leave it with the other pair - that's even if I don't use it. I mostly use it for long calls but that's typically just once a week. But even that doesn't save you from times where you don't bring any headphones but still want to listen in your car or any other scenario. Has happened multiple times to me already despite all that hassle. Also, a big use case is to listen to music while charging your phone at work etc. With an adapter that isn't possible.
- wilsonnb 8y ago
  The headphone adapters from Apple and Google cost $9 dollars each. If you can afford to buy a $700 phone, you can afford to spend $30 bucks on some extra adapters if you want them. In most cases, at least. I suppose availability of the adapters might be an issue in some areas as well.
  - tjoff 8y ago
    Yeah, exactly. $20 doesn't even cover shipping costs. And doesn't solve the problem of having to bring it all the time. I need to literally spend $50 to be seriously inconvenienced because the manufacturer wanted to save $0.2 ? Also, no. We still have some to wait before anyone produces a $700 phone worth the money.
  - intended 8y ago
    To be honest, if I can afford a 700 dollar phone, I can far more easily afford a 500 dollar older phone which has a headphone jack. I don’t need the irritation of managing extra jacks for an obvious attempt to force me to give up a standard configuration. No thanks.
intended 8y ago
My main headphones are huge audiotechnicas which I couldn’t wear in a car or at work without it being a massive pain. It’s a massive pain.
grincho 8y ago
Which headphones? And then, when you want to plug them into an (even Apple) laptop, you detach the adaptor and forget to bring it with you.
- wilsonnb 8y ago
  That is true of the iPhone adapters but a USB C adapter with a DAC inside will work with any laptop that has a USB C port.
  - tjoff 8y ago
    So that draws power and does that work with all phones? That's quite the "workaround".
    - wilsonnb 8y ago
      It will work with any phone or PC with a USB C port as long as the OS supports USB audio devices. As far as I know, all the major OS's support those. Even iOS if you have a lightning -> USB adapter. Technically it draws power but it's not going to use more power than an internal headphone jack does. They are both just a DAC and a small headphone amp. The only difference is that one is inside the device and one is outside the device. In a few years, once the idea of having a device without a USB C port seems strange, headphones and AUX cables will probably just come with a DAC/amp built in to them and nobody except audio enthusiasts will care about not having a 3.5mm port on their device. That is, if Apple decides to embrace USB C on iOS devices which I think they will.
      - tjoff 8y ago
        "It will work". Just as bluetooth? Humanity has serious issues getting serial to work over USB, yet this will just work? Across all OSes? We can't even make USB-C CABLES correctly, but THIS is a sure thing? Even the cheap ones everyone will buy? Or the expensive ones that has the same hardware but a nicer box/cable? We won't have apple compatible cables, android compatible cables etc.? We won't have situations where that popular brand of "cables" doesn't work on new Samsungs/xxx? Let's pretend that will be the case this time around? Honestly I think audio enthusiasts are the only users for which that isn't the most absurd idea ever. Audio enthusiasts could use a decent DAC and for the first time combine regular hardware (wide selection of phones) and still get decent output. For everyone else though a headphone jack would be several orders of magnitudes better and cheaper. And guess what, it just works. I know people have done their darndest to make the microphone over 3.5mm experience as miserable as possible but despite that we still have/had a universal way to transmit stereo audio. There are no decent alternatives even on the horizon. There haven't been brought up a single argument for the removal of it other than it isn't so bad to spend 10% of the device on adapters that you always need to carry. Seriously?

Why not just keep the dongle attached to your headphones?

by laken 8y ago

Why not just keep the dongle attached to your headphones?

That's what you do. But what if you have several headphones? (I can barely realistically buy an extra adapter for my phone, never mind the ridiculous cost) I've got two headphones (good sound or active noise cancellation) that I use and every single day I have to keep extra track of the adapter to make sure that I didn't leave it with the other pair - that's even if I don't use it. I mostly use it for long calls but that's typically just once a week. But even that doesn't save you from times where you don't bring any headphones but still want to listen in your car or any other scenario. Has happened multiple times to me already despite all that hassle. Also, a big use case is to listen to music while charging your phone at work etc. With an adapter that isn't possible.

wilsonnb 8y ago
The headphone adapters from Apple and Google cost $9 dollars each. If you can afford to buy a $700 phone, you can afford to spend $30 bucks on some extra adapters if you want them. In most cases, at least. I suppose availability of the adapters might be an issue in some areas as well.
- tjoff 8y ago
  Yeah, exactly. $20 doesn't even cover shipping costs. And doesn't solve the problem of having to bring it all the time. I need to literally spend $50 to be seriously inconvenienced because the manufacturer wanted to save $0.2 ? Also, no. We still have some to wait before anyone produces a $700 phone worth the money.
- intended 8y ago
  To be honest, if I can afford a 700 dollar phone, I can far more easily afford a 500 dollar older phone which has a headphone jack. I don’t need the irritation of managing extra jacks for an obvious attempt to force me to give up a standard configuration. No thanks.

intended 8y ago

My main headphones are huge audiotechnicas which I couldn’t wear in a car or at work without it being a massive pain. It’s a massive pain.

grincho 8y ago

Which headphones? And then, when you want to plug them into an (even Apple) laptop, you detach the adaptor and forget to bring it with you.

wilsonnb 8y ago
That is true of the iPhone adapters but a USB C adapter with a DAC inside will work with any laptop that has a USB C port.
- tjoff 8y ago
  So that draws power and does that work with all phones? That's quite the "workaround".
  - wilsonnb 8y ago
    It will work with any phone or PC with a USB C port as long as the OS supports USB audio devices. As far as I know, all the major OS's support those. Even iOS if you have a lightning -> USB adapter. Technically it draws power but it's not going to use more power than an internal headphone jack does. They are both just a DAC and a small headphone amp. The only difference is that one is inside the device and one is outside the device. In a few years, once the idea of having a device without a USB C port seems strange, headphones and AUX cables will probably just come with a DAC/amp built in to them and nobody except audio enthusiasts will care about not having a 3.5mm port on their device. That is, if Apple decides to embrace USB C on iOS devices which I think they will.
    - tjoff 8y ago
      "It will work". Just as bluetooth? Humanity has serious issues getting serial to work over USB, yet this will just work? Across all OSes? We can't even make USB-C CABLES correctly, but THIS is a sure thing? Even the cheap ones everyone will buy? Or the expensive ones that has the same hardware but a nicer box/cable? We won't have apple compatible cables, android compatible cables etc.? We won't have situations where that popular brand of "cables" doesn't work on new Samsungs/xxx? Let's pretend that will be the case this time around? Honestly I think audio enthusiasts are the only users for which that isn't the most absurd idea ever. Audio enthusiasts could use a decent DAC and for the first time combine regular hardware (wide selection of phones) and still get decent output. For everyone else though a headphone jack would be several orders of magnitudes better and cheaper. And guess what, it just works. I know people have done their darndest to make the microphone over 3.5mm experience as miserable as possible but despite that we still have/had a universal way to transmit stereo audio. There are no decent alternatives even on the horizon. There haven't been brought up a single argument for the removal of it other than it isn't so bad to spend 10% of the device on adapters that you always need to carry. Seriously?