With the new Iphones push to kill off the headphone jack, I have heard a lot of discussions from Apple fans mostly about the evolution of technology and how the loss of the jack was inevitable. But is this really the case? The 3.5mm standard has its drawbacks with the ports being prone to failure especially in water resistant phones like the xperia x line. But it is also completely reversible and outputs in analog which is the only signal type compatible with speaker units directly.
So am interested to hear peoples thoughts who don't blindly follow PR spin and hear if the jack should be retired and replaced or if it is still a good interface.
I think the fact that theyre getting rid of the 3.5mm jack is absolutely awful. I want to be able to listen to music on highend headphones without having to use an adapter. Also I want to listen to music while charging. And dont even get me started on the airpods and their likels occurring latency as well as the fact that I think theyll have trouble syncing. But then again youre probably gonna loose anyway after like a week
The iphone implementation probably is going to suck but could a new standard such as type c or wireless (bluetooth or otherwise) improve the jack in any way.
Personally, I see this is nothing more than an attempt by Apple to lock down another aspect of their market, and make people pay them even more for shitty peripherals.
Yes it could improve it but they would be some much more expensive for a while and then you would have 1 very accepted standard fighting with a possibly better standard and it becomes a mess.
Not a change us bad idea but until USB C is literally everywhere there is not point in trying to make it the audio standard.
The 3.5mm jack is the only connector I have ever considered to be "futureproof", because it has existed in one form or another for the past 150 years. Its basic function has not changed, its basic function has never needed to change. It's for delivering an analogue to speakers and that is it. Apple says they got rid of it because of "courage" and so that they could fit more technology onto the phone. That's the kind of dumbass explanation that only the zombie masses will take seriously.
There's a reason the [new] Macbook [air] fell through the sky, and it's because every connector on it had to go through an expensive dongle.
Now Apple is insisting on moving headphones to wireless and reluctantly giving it back through yet another dongle. I'd like to ask - has anyone ever come across a wireless set of earphones/headphones that, never mind sucking, even came close to the audio quality of a good set of wired headphones?
Sorry, but any portable device that needs a breakout cable for basic functionality just signed its own death warrant. At least, any other device whose manufacturer doesn't have a horde of mindless hipsters chasing after it, justifying it by saying "it's revolutionary"
The main problem i see with wireless headphones is the DAC needing to be built into the product which makes it trade for either size or sound quality. Also with the new lightning port it must output analog as with a cable adapter standard earphones can be used.
Don't fix what isn't broken. I mean, Are the VERY tiny wires that also help you find your headphones THAT much of a hassle? I would expect android to keep 3.5mm while this thing goes the way of thunderbolt. The only people that this appeals to are hipsters. then again, maybe not as most of them use their phones "Ironically" or, they use them as a fashion accessory. whats the point if you cant see them, right?
What do we see here? A nice beefy cable going into a nice beefy 3.5mm jack. That cable goes from my compact surround system to my PC. Some Audiotechnica and Teufel headphones come with similar connectors. Do you really think those stainless steel ones are going to break anytime soon? I don´t!
Apple just touched and broke a running system. The technology is not there yet and this is a feature nobody really needs.
In theory using the lightning/USB port opens new possibilities. For instance active noise cancelling can be done by the phone's CPU instead of having to have a seperate brick on the headphone cable like the Bose QC20 currently has. If Apple had done that, it would have been a different story. Now though it was only to get the IP67 rating and probably to lock people even more into their ecosystem and sell adapters and dongles.
Can understand the reasoning behind it for the IP67 rating, which is a great feature to be honest.
I wonder if the screen will work as well as the Galaxy S7 underwater though, that worked absolutely amazingly. My iPhone 6 & SE don't work when wet. That's another topic though...
My only 2c in this is the video I watched from Unbox Theropy where he got a set of lightning earphones and he said they sounded a lot worse than the 3.5mm jack.
If the quality is degraded with the dongle and a set of headphones then that is just a really bad move. Bluetooth cans are fine but I want something I can just plug in and not worry about charging.
How about they simply update the 3.5mm jack standard? Its probably managed by the IEEE, so... just like USB got upgraded, why not upgrade 3.5mm too?
Apple wants waterproof? OK that might be difficult with electronic audio, but it surely is possible If they must have it, well just create a new standard, and charge your users to hell for it (classic Apple)
The only way I can see this working out for the better, is if they implemented some sort of wireless bluetooth adapter that you can plug into your standard 3.5mm headphones and then connect to your phone.
I would be all for that, especially if the transponder had nfc charging. But we'd still have the problem of having to charge more things.
My headphones are worth more than the phone. Whenever I go back to apples shit, it sounds muddled and ancient, like I have cotton swabs in my ears or something.
If Samsung is able to do it on their galaxy s7 and get it ip67 certified, then apple is doing something wrong.
There's no rubber stopper or anything on the phone. I constantly clean it under the sink.
Only thing that worries me is the oxidation from the water. Over time, it can probably lead to your device rusting. But that's probably over many years.
As an Android user I fail to understand the issue? I have been using bluetooth for audio for a while now. There is a possible new bluetooth standard on the horizon. I do not expect audiophile audio from a phone. I have better equipment for that.
