Comment by simpaticoder
1 month ago
I agree the loss of the 3.5mm jack is a short-sighted and poor decision. There is at least one mitigation, which is the ability to recover the jack through a USB-C DAC. Apple sells them for USD10. I have several, in the car and in my backpack.
It's not a good solution though. In particular I find the USB-C port gets worn out pretty quickly. Its also easy to lose the dongle and of course it's more complicated to setup. (I'm not sure how to articulate the "it's more complicated" part. Adding the dongle elevates the action of "plug in headphones" from something you can do without attention to something that requires attention, and I don't like that.)
Also, seemingly without exception, the dongle itself is fragile and ends up causing constant crackling after a while.
Can't you just leave a dongle on any wired headphones you have? Assuming you only use them with your phone and computer and don't have a CD player or something.
> Assuming you only use them with your phone
This is really where it hits. Every other device has a proper jack, so the dongle needs to be kept somewhere every other time.
I guess that's my question, what other devices are people using? I'm just curious where people need to remove the dongle because maybe I have bad imagination but not much comes to mind.
I listen to music on earbuds on my phone on the go, a laptop at a cafe, and on my computer at my desk - all these have USB-C.
Even modern DAPs like Sony Walkman have USB-C as they are typically based on Android.
That leaves all the "legacy" devices that only a small minority use - home hi-fi stacks, vinyl record players, iPods, CD players, minidisc players?
Get a set of wired headphones without a built-in cord. Then you can use any USB-C to 3.5 male cord like normal.
You can't use a passive cable for this - there may be a USB-to-audio standard, but it's not widely implemented anymore. You need a DAC.
Thanks! You probably saved me $15 a year from now :)