this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Two cents on the headphone jack issue folks bring up all the time. The convenience of 3.5 mm is great and valid. Totally agree.
However, I use and own a lot of wired higher end headphones and a dongle DAC is just better audio quality than the 3.5mm jack. Let me explain.
3.5mm jacks means the phone's on board DAC is doing the work and outputting an analog stereo signal. You are stuck with whatever, typically sub-par, DAC is built into your phone. Yes, some phones have better DACs than others, but it is a challenge to sort out and is often not a priority for most manufacturers.
With type C dongle you can escape your phone's limitations and use dongles with audio features like fully balanced audio because the signal stays digital from your phone to the dongle. Personally, I'm a fan of 4.4 mm balanced connection, as most of my headphones will run balanced. This is something I could never do with 3.5mm alone.
DDHifi, XDUOO, ifi, etc makes some great 'audiophile' - dumb title but you know what I mean - DACs.
I often don't hear this side of the issue discussed.
The idea with the jack is convenience tho. Including the jack won't take much space and it's just convenient. You wanna take a quick phone call while doing stuff around the house, plug the headphones in and good to go, no worries about battery or connection loss. You still have the type C for the digital audio. A hybrid analog/SPDIF would be even cooler, some laptops and sound cards do it
I don’t get why everything has to be wireless these days. It becomes less convenient when we have yet another device to charge. Heck, remember when removable batteries used to be a convenience feature?