On a recent post, there were a lot of comments, which said that they were missing the headphones on newer mobile devices.
How many actually use the headphone jack?
I ask, because I have one on my phone, since I really wanted one, but I rarely use it. Like Tops 1/Month.
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People like having choice, it was never about saving space in phones. I like my wired bose headphones that I’ve had for 15 years and will likely last at least 15 more. Those wireless ones are the definition of planned obsolescence.
Also bluetooth fucking sucks for lack of a better phrase.
9/10 times it connects fine, but then every now and then it just refuses. “What? No I don’t exist” and then you have to either restart bluetooth and/or the device, and then it magically works again.
Also, I quite often get stuttering with it. Not sure if it is my phone or headphones or both at fault, but I would like having an audio jack when I am sitting at the desk
Exactly this. It is about choice. I have a wireless phone and use a wireless headphones because my big wired headphones were too bulky for commute anyways. I still like to use my nice headphones at the computer. The experience is nicer. But despite having the top of the line wireless headphones for the phone, I can see how they are not gonna last the whole phone’s life. The phone isn’t any slimmer anyway, but it’s allegedly water proof.
You can get waterproof headphone jacks, just like how usb ports are now waterproof even without the sealed flaps we used to have to deal with. Even back then the headphone jacks didn’t go under a flap because they were fine as is.
I think people who dislike the headphone jack must be young and not have (good) wired headphones.
Older people (older than teenagers and young adults I mean) often have a few pairs of good headphones they got over the years, and it’s a massive waste to just throw them away and buy wireless because that’s what the trends demand. And in most cases wireless won’t sound as good, because the budget needs to go to bluetooth chips, and dacs, and batteries and all that crap, instead of just focusing on audio.According to Wikipedia, ‘The original 1⁄4 inch (6.35 mm) version descends from as early as 1877’, and it’s been an industry standard since then.
You can use it not just for headphones but as a line out, to connect all kinds of audio devices between them. You can hook up your phone to a car audio system, an old radio (if it has input, I think most do), a guitar pedal or an amplifier, a reverb or an effects unit, etc., just with the “magic” of wires.There are honestly no good wireless headphones out there. Yes, in the price range ~300€ you can get some decent earbuds. But still not even close in sound quality to what you can buy for 100€ with a wire.
I use the headphone jack every single day, both with my headphones and with an audio-in cable for my car.
I’d be lost without it.
Also, I’ve tried Bluetooth headsets and they’ve all died on me for various reasons. I want relatively high quality headphones, and whether they’re wired or wireless, good sound tends to cost more. But I don’t want to spend more on something that will die quickly, so it’s wired headphones for me.
a cheap external DAC typically sounds better and has more power than the ones built into phones with a headphone jack. If you actually care about the audio quality from your phone then a DAC is more practical.
Oh cool! Another Thing. I love how many of my minor problems are solved just by buying another Thing. My home is now a perfect curation of all Things I own to fix my minor problems. Do you need a little more power from your headphone jack? Get this Thing! Keep it with you; it’s not much help after you lose it. What’s that? You don’t even listen at full volume using the jack? Don’t you understand. It sounds slightly better. You idiots won’t know headroom if came up and bit you on the face.
In short, I kinda like my built-in headphone jack.
Since you mentioned the “power” of an external DAC I’ll add that my experience has been that android will still limit the output unless you use an app that works directly with the DAC. Last time I checked the only option was paid.
Well the problem is that a DAC doesn’t have any power to it at all. What you are thinking of is an amplifier, which a lot of portable DAC units have in them, but not all of them do. For example, the DAC/AMP I have is the iFi iDSD Black Label, which has its own Amp that is controlled through an analog dial.
If your unit doesn’t have its own volume controls then it is likely just a DAC with no Amp, meaning you are limited to the power output of your source.
No - I know the difference between a DAC and an amp. The Android (or, maybe it’s just Google Pixel devices, I can’t recall) audio subsystem limits audio output. My phone max. output is about 800mV. I believe they assume all output is going to earphones and they’re trying to protect your hearing. This happens even if you’re using a USB DAC. But, there is an app called USB Audio Player PRO (the may be others) that can bypass the Android audio subsystem and send output directly to the DAC and thereby get the full DAC output - typically around 2V.
You may know the difference between a DAC and Amp, but you clearly don’t understand what I’m trying to say. I’m saying that a DAC doesn’t have its own power output. It literally takes a digital signal, and converts it to analog. In order for it to add any power to the signal, it needs to include an amplifier. Otherwise, the signal will always be a little bit weaker due to the power loss from traveling through the DAC. Most DAC units have at least a weak amplifier for this reason, but there are some units that are just a DAC. And the Amp part isn’t going to be controlling the digital volume, i.e. changing the system volume on your device. It will operate on its own volume control, so regardless of how limited the output is from your phone, it will still be made louder as it amplifies the volume independently of the phone. A unit that is just a DAC doesn’t have any way to amplify the signal it receives, so it will never be able to make it louder.
You said explicitly that the android system will limit the output of any DAC, but that is wrong on multiple counts. The android system will not limit the output of a DAC because a DAC itself just 1:1 outputs an analog signal converted from a digital source so there is nothing to limit. The android system will also not limit the output from an Amplifier because it literally is not capable of that. That’s like saying your water faucet can limit how hot your water can get when you boil it on the stove. An Amp increases the power of the signal after it has already left the phone.
I suggest you learn about the difference between line level and speaker level. This article seems to do a decent job:
https://www.electronicshub.org/speaker-level-vs-line-level/
Your boiling water analogy does not fit - water boils at 100°C (depending on air pressure). It’s like the digital signal - boiled/not-boiled, on/off, 1/0, etc.
The output of a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) is a line level analogue signal and this signal has an amplitude (voltage) that can be controlled. I’m not a software or audio engineer so I don’t understand how, but my reading and own testing supports this.
My own simple test: I have a Google Pixel 4a and an Apple USB-C DAC (dongle). If I use headphones connected to either the phone audio jack or the DAC and any “normal” music player I can listen at full volume - it’s loud, but far from uncomfortable. If I use USB Audio Player PRO and configure direct hardware access to the DAC I cannot listen at full volume - it’s too loud.
I bought a USB-to-aux adapter because my current phone does not have a headphone jack and my vehicle doesn’t have Bluetooth. I use it literally every day, sometimes for hours. It’s utter nonsense that they are getting rid of them.
Your vehicle could have Bluetooth for about $20. Just sayin’.
Those radio tuner transmitters are fucking terrible.
I’m talking about Bluetooth receivers you can plug into your aux port.
I’m aware. I’ve been through half a dozen of them and don’t want to buy another. An aux cord costs $5 and last practically forever unless you abuse them. My car has built-in Bluetooth, but it has a weird delay and randomly disconnects, mutes, or starts changing what I’m playing on my phone like a remote is pressing buttons.
I use it every day on my way to work and most nights before bed.
I see a lot of people saying the use it every day, probably since this type of post attracts those types of people. So I will break the mold and say that I never use it.
I haven’t had a headphone jack in my last 2 phones and I haven’t missed it at all. Maybe once or twice in the last few years when I have gotten into my mom’s car which doesn’t have Bluetooth. All my headphones are Bluetooth. All my speakers are Bluetooth. If I really need a headphone jack I can still use a dongle but that almost never happens.
Me. I own both wired and wireless earphones and I want to be able to use both.
I do. Everyday.
Nobody’s mentioning the lossy sound quality of Bluetooth compared to wired. Bluetooth relies on codecs and compression in order to stream the data fast enough to listen uninterrupted.
Wired sets are lossless; and yes, some people can hear the difference.
I have never once missed it. I’ve already switched to Bluetooth for my headphones and car. At home I cast to the hifi or Bluetooth speaker.
I got an adaptor to let me use cabled headphones when I need to and I’ve used it twice, once was to test it even worked.
The use case just doesn’t exist for me anymore.
Same. Did me, the advantages of wired headphones don’t outweigh the obnoxiousness of fucking wires getting tangled up.
This is it for me. Yeah Bluetooth is meh, some codec make it less meh, but really I just don’t want to have a wire, and am willing to put up with all the tradeoffs to make that happen.
I use it a lot for podcasts and music. I won’t buy a fucking phone without a fucking headphone jack. That shit can burn in hell.
I use it by default to listen to podcasts when running or at the gym. I only buy phones with a headphone jack because I feel like wired headphones are a better feature than any flagship phone stuff. Wired headphones are much cheaper, interchangeable, harder to lose, no connection hassles, and best of all I don’t need to remember to charge them. The only downside is tangles.
I have a pair of wireless earbuds I got ages ago for about 5x what my wired earbuds cost, when I mistakenly bought a non-jack phone. I don’t use them since going back to a jacked phone.
Nowadays only in my car. It doesn’t have a bluetooth receiver.
It’s hard to find a wired earphones with ANC. About a decade earlier I used wired a Audio Technica earphones with ANC.
