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Aux port is useful for much more than earbuds. I plug in an aux cable daily in my car (GPS + podcasts = need power and aux slot simultaneously, or a several hun

Aux port is useful for much more than earbuds. I plug in an aux cable daily in my car (GPS + podcasts = need power and aux slot simultaneously, or a several hundred dollar head unit upgrade to have halfway decent bluetooth, or a dongle that does both and the hope i dont forget it if i use a rental car). Use with my existing headphones/aux cables around my house, same port as my desktop/laptop, same port as various devices at my relatives houses, never need to hunt to find a dongle, (especially when most people i know have iphones - so no usb-c dongles anywhere) TL;DR: Aux cables are useful to me daily, dongles are a pain in the ass, bluetooth doesnt fit my use case or equipment i already use. Aux port has value to me and options still exist to get phones with an aux port so I vote with my wallet.

emn13 6y ago
You're going to have to replace the equipment; dongles are a at best a limited workaround (basically you need to glue to dongle to the headphone or certainly never take it out of the respective device, otherwise it's too much hassle and risk of losing it). Dongles are OK for specific legacy devices, no more. But the real advantage of aux sounds like the standardization to you - and that's mostly a question of simply making the jump. Yes, you need to spend a little money (but much less than your other devices like phones/laptops/etc, so it's not a crazy step), perhaps even hundreds. But once you do - bluetooth support is about as pervasive as aux, and becoming more so. Quite a few devices no longer have aux ports, but do have bluetooth. Even today, you'll be able to use your bluetooth headphones with essentially all phones and laptops regardless of brand (assuming they're not ancient, and maybe some extremely low end stuff is missing bluetooth). If your desktop doesn't support bluetooth, a desktop dongle is just a few dollars and you can leave it in permanently. Switching standards is annoying, but it's going to happen sometime; and at this point bluetooth is pervasive enough that it's pretty usable.
- SECProto 6y ago
  I don't like doing point-by-points, but much of what you said is not correct: > You're going to have to replace the equipment Or I could just keep buying and using phones with aux ports, and all the equipment at home/friends/family will continue to work > But the real advantage of aux sounds like the standardization to you - and that's mostly a question of simply making the jump I already listed a number of places I use the aux port. The only thing I own that uses bluetooth is a Garmin watch. I see no reason to switch. > Yes, you need to spend a little money (but much less than your other devices like phones/laptops/etc Or I could keep using aux and not spend any money, and my laptop/phone/desktop/car/headphones will all continue to work together just fine. > Even today, you'll be able to use your bluetooth headphones with essentially all phones and laptops regardless of brand Not with my desktop, nor my home theatre, nor my in flight entertainment. > If your desktop doesn't support bluetooth, a desktop dongle is just a few dollars and you can leave it in permanently. Or, again, keep using aux and have great quality and no dropouts? > Switching standards is annoying, but it's going to happen sometime; and at this point bluetooth is pervasive enough that it's pretty usable. Every time I use bluetooth, it is slow (garmin watch) or it drops out (car audio in numerous vehicles, microsoft wireless mouse) or the music stutters (cars again) or the batteries die (friends I see with bluetooth earbuds). Bluetooth offers me zero improvement, numerous regressions. And yeah, standards may switch sometime. But I have family with knob-and-tube wiring still in use, I doubt aux cables are disappearing anytime soon.

emn13 6y ago

You're going to have to replace the equipment; dongles are a at best a limited workaround (basically you need to glue to dongle to the headphone or certainly never take it out of the respective device, otherwise it's too much hassle and risk of losing it). Dongles are OK for specific legacy devices, no more. But the real advantage of aux sounds like the standardization to you - and that's mostly a question of simply making the jump. Yes, you need to spend a little money (but much less than your other devices like phones/laptops/etc, so it's not a crazy step), perhaps even hundreds. But once you do - bluetooth support is about as pervasive as aux, and becoming more so. Quite a few devices no longer have aux ports, but do have bluetooth. Even today, you'll be able to use your bluetooth headphones with essentially all phones and laptops regardless of brand (assuming they're not ancient, and maybe some extremely low end stuff is missing bluetooth). If your desktop doesn't support bluetooth, a desktop dongle is just a few dollars and you can leave it in permanently. Switching standards is annoying, but it's going to happen sometime; and at this point bluetooth is pervasive enough that it's pretty usable.

SECProto 6y ago
I don't like doing point-by-points, but much of what you said is not correct: > You're going to have to replace the equipment Or I could just keep buying and using phones with aux ports, and all the equipment at home/friends/family will continue to work > But the real advantage of aux sounds like the standardization to you - and that's mostly a question of simply making the jump I already listed a number of places I use the aux port. The only thing I own that uses bluetooth is a Garmin watch. I see no reason to switch. > Yes, you need to spend a little money (but much less than your other devices like phones/laptops/etc Or I could keep using aux and not spend any money, and my laptop/phone/desktop/car/headphones will all continue to work together just fine. > Even today, you'll be able to use your bluetooth headphones with essentially all phones and laptops regardless of brand Not with my desktop, nor my home theatre, nor my in flight entertainment. > If your desktop doesn't support bluetooth, a desktop dongle is just a few dollars and you can leave it in permanently. Or, again, keep using aux and have great quality and no dropouts? > Switching standards is annoying, but it's going to happen sometime; and at this point bluetooth is pervasive enough that it's pretty usable. Every time I use bluetooth, it is slow (garmin watch) or it drops out (car audio in numerous vehicles, microsoft wireless mouse) or the music stutters (cars again) or the batteries die (friends I see with bluetooth earbuds). Bluetooth offers me zero improvement, numerous regressions. And yeah, standards may switch sometime. But I have family with knob-and-tube wiring still in use, I doubt aux cables are disappearing anytime soon.