10 ms·

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 d

by 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.

by atoav 3y ago

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.