Apple's move to abandon the traditional audio jack has attracted a lot of attention. As for me, I hope I never have to plug in another headphone cord. It might be dancing happily on my enemy's grave before digging; it is. The jack has always been a pain point in my device. Maybe I'm just out of luck. Money has been tight since childhood. I will save money to buy a nice set of headphones or mp3 players, just to make the jack go out. This is an obvious betrayal, and I have doubted them ever since. Is this the best thing we can do?
I can't think of a good reason not to start abandoning the headphone jack right away. Of course, this is one of the few global standards. Of course it is simple, but I bet that once the era of 3.5 mm audio jacks is over, few people will miss it. This is a global event of the sunk cost fallacy.
In hindsight, normally the 3.5mm audio jack can be seen as a workaround, stopping before we don’t need it. This seems to be hacking again and again before something better appears. When was the last time the Ethernet cable was connected to the laptop? When we can reliably get all the bandwidth we want through a wireless connection, who will do it. In addition, it is not like most Ethernet cables that even meet the specifications to reach their promised speeds. How can anyone reasonably expect infinitely more subjective and variable headphone and amplifier settings to be better?
But instead of just throwing it away idly, I want to give a reason to oppose it and paint a possible painless and aurally better future.
Suppose you have to design a consumer-facing device that fits in someone’s pocket. The pockets are dusty. It was wet and sweaty. You know your own stuff, so you are already considering gaskets and IP ratings. Then someone will hand you the specification sheet. They let you know that they want you to drill a hole in it, and then put an unusable deep hole in the box. Now repeating the flushing of every portable device on the planet seems to be a strange large-scale illusion.
I think if someone had a very bad day, they might spill coffee on the switchboard... [CC Joseph C.] There is no good way to seal or maintain the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Some mobile phone manufacturers have tried by adding a small washer or flap, but this will not last. It may also be sealed, but because it must have a small spring and bracket inside, it is still vulnerable to natural damage from liquids and dust. I even saw some people irreparably corroded by the salt in sweat.
Just like we all agree to ignore the fact that these connectors are designed for switch boards. A clean, dry switchboard located in a professional location for use by trained personnel and regular maintenance. It is designed as an easy-to-use connector that can be quickly inserted and removed for low-quality audio phone switching. It has never been designed as the ultimate connector for high-quality audio signals. Pushing it to the world may just be a quick hacking attack. When home audio began to become a common phenomenon, connectors that had been adopted and mass-produced were used.
Because we have gotten rid of the keyboard on mobile devices (this is a shame, but that is another article). Because every manufacturer seems to be very committed to irreplaceable batteries. There is no reason not to switch to fully waterproof and dustproof equipment. At least there can be a bright side. The audio port hinders us.
This is not the line's fault. It was sent to the front line without suitable equipment. [CC Paul Hussey] Next is cable strain. People like to complain about how iPhone earbuds keep breaking at the seams. It is true that other brands have better stress relief. However, it is also true that all audio cables put in a pocket will break before any other components reach the end of their useful life. Essentially, the pocket exceeds all reasonable expectations of cable strain within tolerance. This is a hostile environment. My last pair of headphones passed through two cables during normal use. This goes directly to the next design flaw, force.
As mentioned earlier, the audio connector is designed to be easily inserted into the switchboard room. It will not see any dramatic power. Therefore, it is a high connector that is easy to hold and easy to use. It should also be a low insertion force connector. Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect it to be able to reliably fix the cable in place.
However, when placed in the pocket, it suddenly sees a force perpendicular to its axis. This can cause some very large moments on very small plastic and spring metal sockets. We all know that the longer we have a mobile phone, the less our headphone jack has the ability to hold the jack in place. There is simply no way to design such a small thing to withstand such a large force and remain cost-effective. On the contrary, it seems that we just adjusted our expectations and then forgot that we even adjusted.
From a design point of view, this seems even crazier, when you consider that such a huge force-bearing connector is actually connected to the motherboard of your device (to be fair, most smartphones do use spring connectors to connect the jack Connect to the motherboard, but think about laptops and other devices). The welding connection is not flexible. The metals we use for solders are prone to work hardening and fracture under cyclic forces. Therefore, you have to bend not only the connection between the port and the circuit board itself, but also all surrounding components. Therefore, one of the most common repairs on mobile devices is audio and USB ports, which is not a mystery.
There is still a difference between Bluetooth and wired sound quality. There is no reason to expect it to last for a long time. Bluetooth is now able to provide some impressive bandwidth, and as the actual market for headsets erupts, this will soon become a controversial issue. I specifically choose Bluetooth because it is the only standard that is both universal and applicable, at least for connecting peripherals.
There is a lot of controversy regarding the sound quality of the 3.5 mm headphone jack. I think, frankly, most of them make no sense for the transition. If you sit in the listening room at home and connect a perfectly tuned preamplifier to a high-quality headset while listening to FLAC audio from a dedicated music computer, you may hear a distinctly different headset that connects directly to your phone via Bluetooth. But you are not. From frayed ports to low-quality cables with unamplified signals, to some cost-designed headphones, you have noisy connections. I think this is a kind of washing.
In addition, switching to a wireless standard will not completely kill the wired headset market. When wires are important, you can still get wired headphones. Those who spend more than a hundred dollars on the quality sound of wired headphones will still own their toys. That market is far from death. People who paid ten dollars for anything would never notice.
Most cell phones and portable devices waste zero energy when trying to amplify the signal in a meaningful way. Therefore, if you want a full range of headphones, you must add an amplifier. There is also the fact that they are already Class D audio amplifiers, trying to maximize the battery life of the device. When it reaches your ear, it has been triple-digitized to death. Fortunately, we now have more processing power in greeting cards than we reasonably know, so most people are unlikely to notice this difference.
However, modern Bluetooth audio chips are actually great, and they will only get better. They are ultra-low power Class D amplifiers, built and optimized for sound quality. There is a lithium battery inside the headset, so there is no reason not to expect engineers to take advantage of this and stop designing every driver in the world to run the two or three magic elves that the phone is willing to provide. In fact, it should be possible to have wireless earphones that sound better than wired earphones.
I bought a set of very cheap Bluetooth headsets on Amazon. I rarely feel so satisfied with the purchase. Do they sound good? Not really, but I don’t want any $10 headphones to sound good. Before the battery needs to be recharged, I get an average of ten days of intermittent use. I can go to the climbing gym and leave my phone on the ground while climbing. When I was working on a project in the hacking field, I could walk 30 feet away from my mobile phone without missing any audio books. It connects automatically. Have a good time. It's a better experience in all aspects.
With my headphones, I always struggle with cables. I always keep my phone in my pocket so that the phone cord does not bend too much. Headphones know more than we know that the knot is a cultural meme.
Of course, Bluetooth has some drawbacks. Will we cover battery replacement techniques in a few years? perhaps. Will there be growing pains? certainly. Will they be eliminated in the next few years? most likely.
So how do we transition? Well, the first step is complete. One big player finally gave up the port. it's time. But what about all the advantages of wired headphones? Global standards? Can you contribute to the total destruction of our planet by buying them for cheap prices in pounds instead of adults who can hold on and take care of quality items? How about their general integration with every device that wants to make sound?
It's not that we don't have other very good global standards to power headphones. [CC Maurizio Pesce] But we do have other global standards that can transmit sound signals. We have USB. Although after Apple invested in Beats, I gave them too much trust to hedge, but in this regard, they are also pointing the way. The dongle is an indecent example, but it only serves as a transition to the 3.5 mm port. What if your headset only has a USB C port on one end, and you can plug the cable of your choice directly into your phone? This phone can power certain accessories, as long as it is designed to turn off the charging circuit when in use, there is no reason why it cannot work properly. We can all transition easily. We really will not miss it.
The laptop can definitely be charged and played at the same time. If your battery is low, just connect it to USB. You will get the wired experience and common standard experience that we all love. It's just that there is no strange analog connector when electronic products were born. All the Lego bricks are there, we just need to build the spaceship.
Nonetheless, all this is pedantic. Portable audio has never been a power-hungry game, and in the end I don’t think people will notice cable problems. I thought I would, but I didn't. I'm used to inserting things when the situation requires it, I just do this, nothing more.
It's time to say goodbye to the 3.5 mm tradition. I hope others will follow in Apple's footsteps. I hope that all major headset manufacturers will set their sights on wireless audio and the possibilities it offers. There are already quality settings there, and it will only get better. I will not miss it. I will not miss the magnetic hard drive. I will not miss CDs and mini disks. I haven't adjusted bunny ears on TV in at least ten years. For many years, I didn't even have an Ethernet cable, nor did I use a DB9 serial cable for hardware development. The future continues, and this time I think it will move in the right direction.
I don’t know what wireless earphones and things like "now" look like, but I know that the small cheap earbud 3.5mm earphones I currently use have been in use for about 5 years (I bought them with my original S3 phone) And it is working very well. During that time, I killed 2 mobile phones.
I also put them in the washer and dryer at least 3 times (the last time the rope was clamped and the plastic torn and melted, they still continued to work. The phones (S3 and S4) never showed any signs of loose ports I have encountered this problem with cassette tape players in the past (I almost have a walkman in the entire school), and every time I hear a crackling or sound drop, it comes down to between the cable and the jack The connector on the device instead of the socket on the device. Replacing the headset (usually a cheap pair purchased from a pound store or anywhere else) will allow me to use it for another 3-6 months.
It feels like the author has either brought a lot of nonsense for a lot of money, brought nonsense and expects it to last better, something that needs to work in an overly harsh environment, or just has something that isn’t actually as bad as they are. Bad memories think so.
My biggest problem with wireless earphones is power-we can’t even charge the phone long enough to use it for a day. I hope the earphones can’t be charged for at least a week... I can expect it won’t let my ears bear so much Weight? Fall off?
Yes, it feels like the author is auditioning for a TV commercial product, where they can’t seem to figure out how to untie the hose without wrapping it all in, or take something out of the cabinet without throwing it all over the place first . Big earphones, of course they can be Bluetooth or wireless or anything else, but they have a good big battery, so they can be used forever, and the basic shape remains the same. But earplugs, earplugs are actually disposable and almost indestructible at the same time, they can work normally, and when they fail, they will not be debugged for a long time. Hold it down until it flashes three times, then release it for 10 seconds, then hold it down for 10 seconds... This is also a hacker community who advocates shutting down one of the few remaining io ports in our devices on earth.
When he pried them away from my cold fingers, he could have my dual-balance oxygen-free copper headphone cable...
+1 to everyone here. This article is so embarrassing, I will not read more from this author. This sounds worse than paid "reviews", especially since this is a hacker/open community!
The quality is worse, the battery keeps draining on you, the headset has to be charged all the time, the obvious delay, the BT pairing problem (a real annoyance), the BT connection stability problem, BT uses your phone faster on your phone Battery, sharing a headset and charging port, etc. There are countless troubles that we don’t need or want, but it doesn’t solve real-life problems.
BT is a huge degradation of the 3.5mm jack, it works fine and does not need repair. This is why I am not planning to buy a new iPhone. In my case, Apple just gave their market share to Android.
Agree 100%. The iPhone 6 I use is working fine. I will not transition to Bluetooth headsets or earbuds. When this matter disappears, I will look for options. In my experience, the 3.5 mini jack is more reliable than any mobile phone.
Not really, but I also know that I will dance in flames for it. So I think I wrote an article about my unpopular views, because I know that most people will not agree with my views and say all kinds of rude things to me. This is similar to a troll article, except that I actually put myself under fire there? However, if the author of this site is forced to write only topics that satisfy most people, it will be a less honest site.
Jesus, stability issues. I ran into Bluetooth connection issues while sitting in the dorm, 3 feet away from my laptop (this is a MacBook Pro and a $300 headset, not the pairing issue I expected). I can't imagine walking around in an urban environment with a mobile phone and more affordable earphones without a lot of interference. Especially now everyone wants to use Bluetooth!
For many years, I have had a negative experience with Bluetooth audio, so the only way to describe my reaction to the removal of the 3.5mm port by mobile phone manufacturers is "unbelievable".
I kind of agree with you that the quality of headphones is better than before. But it's a little hard to tell-I might be more careful, I used to be with them, and I certainly don't use them as frequently as I used to commute every day.
My biggest problem with wired headphones is the harm they bring. Grab the power cord with your elbows and let your phone fly. Stand up without thinking, you have the same problem. Wireless means that the phone can be placed in a safe place.
In other words, I don’t have a set of wireless earbuds yet (but I do Chromecast audio every day at work). I want to try Apple's AirPods-the battery life in the earbuds is 5 hours, and the battery life in the headset box is 25 hours. Therefore, you can efficiently charge the charging case, and the charging case will charge the earbuds when you are not using it. However, my earbud budget for the past 3 years is about $62, and Apple's products start at $159. It's hard to sell for me.
To be honest, I just want to buy a set of Bluetooth headsets for $20 on Amazon. Now I have a pair of Soundpeats QY7 for about 5-6 months. It’s really good to not get stuck, but the 5-hour battery life is annoying. . I have used good (Harmon Kardon in-ear) earplugs, but the typical service life is 2-3 months. When the wire breaks, I then use Bluetooth for exercise. After that, I haven't encountered too many problems. Please note that I did not say no, because my laptop has problems with pairing and streaming via wifi (I think it is an Ubuntu problem), so I might buy a good pair of cables for it.
1. Samsung products, among which earphones and single ear products have a micro USB connector to connect a pair of earphones. Daily life is about 3.5-4 hours: if you ask me, this is really bad. My main problem is: the main earphone (the old fart you see walking around in the ear with it, even if they don’t make a phone call) has a fixed in-ear part, the only way is to use a crappy clip , Make a person look like a freak, or put it in a person’s shirt pocket (if someone has a shirt with a breast pocket) or let it hang. Another annoyance is that I currently live in a city with electric buses and trams. At certain intersections, several routes intersect, and the interference of overhead wires leads to crazy cuts.
2. A Plantronics package, which is two buds connected by a 6-7mm flat cable. I tend to walk around in the city. The buds are too heavy and they won't stay long. I will keep pushing them back into place.
It can be said that I have returned to wired. Even with minor problems with wires, they are much more useful than 70 Euro Bluetooth because of its limited battery life and logistical issues. I shudder that the market will follow the example of fruit lovers.
If they put a beautiful small lithium battery in your ears, your brain may be touched by fire and can’t stand the wireless earphones. Some are good enough, but those earphones that have and have a good radio unit are not completely suitable for everyday life. Life. My S3 headset can still work well on S5.
People who complain about headphones have a bad attitude towards them. You see them tightly wound around the device. Every time you break all these copper wires, only Kevlar fiber is left. Repeat this, really don’t think it is relevant , Because this is a question about APPLE users who can’t prevent the screen from cracking.
Yes, it must be that kind of packaging! Don't do it on tools either. No wires are twisted. It will twist when the rope enters a brick, etc.
Considering that there may be billions of lithium batteries, we rarely hear about them exploding. When it does happen, it will become news, partly because it is very rare. Many cases that have occurred are those with wheels, as well as electronic cigarettes. Both of them consume a lot of electricity in a small area, coupled with the lack of specifications of the Chinese, causing the battery to be abused, possibly from the hopper at the back of the factory, and exploded.
I have never heard of Bluetooth headsets or headset explosions in the news or anywhere. I'm sure that if it happens, it will become news.
Post time: Nov-12-2021