4 ms·

The industry seems to have settled on USB-C dongles as the solution for wired headphones. They’re a little clunkier, but they do work pretty well, and you get o

by mafuyu 3y ago

The industry seems to have settled on USB-C dongles as the solution for wired headphones. They’re a little clunkier, but they do work pretty well, and you get options for the DAC. Headphone jacks were a major wear item on older smartphones, and waterproofing them is very annoying as well, requiring a ton of adhesives. I had to take the back glass off my old Xperia Z2C three times over its life to replace the headphone jack, and the waterproofing was totally shot after doing so. At the end of the day, I honestly don’t mind the trade off, although I can see how it can be annoying for others.

jszymborski 3y ago
> Headphone jacks were a major wear item on older smartphones I've had the area around jacks get scratched over the years, but I've never had them fail due to mechanical wear. Is this common for others? I've certainly had the micro and mini USB ports fail on me over the years though.
- Semaphor 3y ago
  Yeah, never had headphone jack issues, it was always the USB port, including with type C now. Sounds like a ridiculous assertion to me, but maybe I use my phone differently.
- mafuyu 3y ago
  I think it varies a lot from product to product, and much of it is the mechanical design of the phone housing, and the durability of the jack they selected. Plus it’s really easy to accidentally put a lot of mechanical strain on it when the cable gets tugged. MiniUSB was a busted connector design from the start, which is why the industry moved to Micro USB so quickly. Many MiniUSB receptacles in the wild were failing after thousands or even hundreds(!) of insertions.
- vundercind 3y ago
  It was a constant problem in my PC & Android days. They’d stop making good contact before long. Sometimes, they never would. Not a problem (like, never) once I switched to Apple… but then they removed the jacks.
- edb_123 3y ago
  I haven't had a single headphone jack fail since my 2nd gen. original iPod (and I'm an avid headphone user). It had this special variant with a remote connection in an outer ring around the headphone jack, resulting in a weak plastic ring which broke a bit too easily from wear if you omitted the wired remote, and plugged your headphones straight into it. But as others have mentioned, I too have had quite a few Micro-USB and USB-C connectors fail over the years. But almost never the trusty old and dearly missed minijack.
- gitaarik 3y ago
  For me the Jack plug from the headphone would always break. Could repair it a couple of times with my own clunky soldering work, but eventually would just wear out too much and I would buy a new headphone. Since wireless I haven't looked back.
dathery 3y ago
My experience has been that it's really easy to damage your USB-C port like this if you keep your phone in your pocket while walking/running. I always end up with the port loose and making poor connections. I ended up buying a small battery-powered Bluetooth-to-3.5mm receiver that I keep in my left pocket, and then send Bluetooth audio to it from my phone in my right pocket. It's a pretty ridiculous setup.
- aqfamnzc 3y ago
  The sideways force on the connector while in my pocket has always been a real concern to me. It's the main thing keeping me from regularly using a dongle.
  - Kerbonut 3y ago
    Get a USB-C magnetic breakaway adapter and you shouldn't have concerns damaging the port. Mildly annoyingly will probably breakaway while you're jogging occasionally but at least it shouldn't damage the port.
  - GuqLyr 3y ago
    For a Fairphone, the USB-C is easily replacable though in case it goes wrong: https://shop.fairphone.com/nl/shop/fairphone-5-usb-c-port-268 https://shop.fairphone.com/nl/shop/fairphone-5-usb-c-port-26...
atoav 3y ago
I have been running (sports) 16km each week with my Fairphone 3 in my pocket and wires headphones, for roughly 3 years now on top of that less harsh daily use during commutes — still no issues. As an electronics guy the jack is rarely the issue, a TRS jack has spring contacts inside, so wear should not be an issue unless they use the shittiest of connectors or you actually damage the bonding between connector and PCB. It is 100 times more likely for the plug to fail and a 1000 times more likely for the cable to fail.
- cameronh90 3y ago
  The bonding between connector and PCB seems to fail a LOT in certain devices. I've been seeing a near 100% failure rate on the USB C connectors over a few years in some Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop generations. I've not seen the same failure in TRS connectors in a long time now, but I think that's mainly because few people actually use them.
- mafuyu 3y ago
  I'm an electronics guy too (if you count firmware :P), and I've always found the spring contacts on TRS jacks to be hit or miss. It's a big receptacle with lots of room for lint to get into, the plug rotates, and it can experience some big forces on drops or cable tugs. Most jacks do just fine, but having the springs eventually wear out on some device or another wasn't uncommon for me 6+ years ago. Not having to worry about whether the jack is going to suck or not on a given product suits me just fine. Having it attached to an adapter means I can easily swap it out if it wears. That said, some of the sibling comments are reporting wear on USB-C receptacles when used while running... The mechanical design of the Apple Lightning connector seems to me like it'd be more durable, since it's tapered and doesn't have that center alignment thing. But maybe the contact springs of Lightning wear out faster as a result? I haven't seen any data on this, just speculating.
mixmastamyk 3y ago
Hmm, the headphone jack on my iphone 6s is working fine after years of almost daily use.

by mafuyu 3y ago

jszymborski 3y ago

> Headphone jacks were a major wear item on older smartphones I've had the area around jacks get scratched over the years, but I've never had them fail due to mechanical wear. Is this common for others? I've certainly had the micro and mini USB ports fail on me over the years though.

Semaphor 3y ago
Yeah, never had headphone jack issues, it was always the USB port, including with type C now. Sounds like a ridiculous assertion to me, but maybe I use my phone differently.
mafuyu 3y ago
I think it varies a lot from product to product, and much of it is the mechanical design of the phone housing, and the durability of the jack they selected. Plus it’s really easy to accidentally put a lot of mechanical strain on it when the cable gets tugged. MiniUSB was a busted connector design from the start, which is why the industry moved to Micro USB so quickly. Many MiniUSB receptacles in the wild were failing after thousands or even hundreds(!) of insertions.
vundercind 3y ago
It was a constant problem in my PC & Android days. They’d stop making good contact before long. Sometimes, they never would. Not a problem (like, never) once I switched to Apple… but then they removed the jacks.
edb_123 3y ago
I haven't had a single headphone jack fail since my 2nd gen. original iPod (and I'm an avid headphone user). It had this special variant with a remote connection in an outer ring around the headphone jack, resulting in a weak plastic ring which broke a bit too easily from wear if you omitted the wired remote, and plugged your headphones straight into it. But as others have mentioned, I too have had quite a few Micro-USB and USB-C connectors fail over the years. But almost never the trusty old and dearly missed minijack.
gitaarik 3y ago
For me the Jack plug from the headphone would always break. Could repair it a couple of times with my own clunky soldering work, but eventually would just wear out too much and I would buy a new headphone. Since wireless I haven't looked back.

dathery 3y ago

My experience has been that it's really easy to damage your USB-C port like this if you keep your phone in your pocket while walking/running. I always end up with the port loose and making poor connections. I ended up buying a small battery-powered Bluetooth-to-3.5mm receiver that I keep in my left pocket, and then send Bluetooth audio to it from my phone in my right pocket. It's a pretty ridiculous setup.

aqfamnzc 3y ago
The sideways force on the connector while in my pocket has always been a real concern to me. It's the main thing keeping me from regularly using a dongle.
- Kerbonut 3y ago
  Get a USB-C magnetic breakaway adapter and you shouldn't have concerns damaging the port. Mildly annoyingly will probably breakaway while you're jogging occasionally but at least it shouldn't damage the port.
- GuqLyr 3y ago
  For a Fairphone, the USB-C is easily replacable though in case it goes wrong: https://shop.fairphone.com/nl/shop/fairphone-5-usb-c-port-268 https://shop.fairphone.com/nl/shop/fairphone-5-usb-c-port-26...

atoav 3y ago

I have been running (sports) 16km each week with my Fairphone 3 in my pocket and wires headphones, for roughly 3 years now on top of that less harsh daily use during commutes — still no issues. As an electronics guy the jack is rarely the issue, a TRS jack has spring contacts inside, so wear should not be an issue unless they use the shittiest of connectors or you actually damage the bonding between connector and PCB. It is 100 times more likely for the plug to fail and a 1000 times more likely for the cable to fail.

cameronh90 3y ago
The bonding between connector and PCB seems to fail a LOT in certain devices. I've been seeing a near 100% failure rate on the USB C connectors over a few years in some Lenovo X1 Carbon laptop generations. I've not seen the same failure in TRS connectors in a long time now, but I think that's mainly because few people actually use them.
mafuyu 3y ago
I'm an electronics guy too (if you count firmware :P), and I've always found the spring contacts on TRS jacks to be hit or miss. It's a big receptacle with lots of room for lint to get into, the plug rotates, and it can experience some big forces on drops or cable tugs. Most jacks do just fine, but having the springs eventually wear out on some device or another wasn't uncommon for me 6+ years ago. Not having to worry about whether the jack is going to suck or not on a given product suits me just fine. Having it attached to an adapter means I can easily swap it out if it wears. That said, some of the sibling comments are reporting wear on USB-C receptacles when used while running... The mechanical design of the Apple Lightning connector seems to me like it'd be more durable, since it's tapered and doesn't have that center alignment thing. But maybe the contact springs of Lightning wear out faster as a result? I haven't seen any data on this, just speculating.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

Hmm, the headphone jack on my iphone 6s is working fine after years of almost daily use.