Just knocked this out and I’m leaving this here to clarify some confusion about the difference between analog audio and lightening audio ports
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Besides the DRM clusterfuck, and the solving of a problem most people didn’t have: I want no cables. I destroyed many things in my life by tripping over, pulling on, ripping out audio cables.
But for John Lennon’s ghost’s sake, can’t those suckers get one standard right? The great thing about the audio jack is in the main article: It. Fucking. Works. Because. Its. Analogue.
Granted, analogue wireless is no option. So would those idiots get their shit together? Aaaaaargh.
Disclaimer: I wanted to buy a pair of wireless headphones since 2014. I am in shock-and-awe ever since. Overwhelmed by capitalism. Because ALL options are flawed.
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You can take the headphone jack from my dead, cold hands. Kicking it out fixes (i.e. worsens) something that didn’t need fixing. If you love your bt earbuds, great, but they would have worked anyway. Which was one of the reason why I went for a Sony XA1 Ultra (that name though, ugh) this time around. There seems to be a newer model coming soon also, where they finally beefed up the anemic battery.
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It’s extraordinary to think that the 1⁄4" phone jack has been around for over a hundred years.
It seems to me that if there’s one way the 3.5 mm connector might be improved, it’s that there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as a “low profile” 90° connector that allows the wires to be more or less flush with the jack. Or at least, I wasn’t able to find one. (Much as I like my Sansa Clip+, having the jack in a non-standard position is unfortunate.)
Having little firsthand experience with such devices, it did not occur to me that was the way these things worked. It seems to me that aside from the DRM “problems”, someone did not like the idea of the jack becoming more frequently used a port for arbitrary input devices (with no licensing required).
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I’ve seen more posts talking about the reality than the belief. So FTFY.
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This isn’t a religious conversation, it’s entirely technical. Best to know what you’re talking about when you’re facing an army of engineers.
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But I’d have learned so much less in my life if I’d followed that advice!
For me, being publicly wrong about something might sting a little (since not all of my friends are… shall we say… gentle in their corrections) but I like the outcome, which is me learning more about something.
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Moving the DAC outside the device does have uses, such as the ability to use a really good DAC and being able to shield out noise. However, I don’t know anything about the DAC quality on the Apple earphones, and as mentioned bluetooth is a terrible transport for audio digital information. (In addition to compression, there is often lag.)
On my phone the audio jack/headphone cable doubles as an FM antenna. However, FM radio is free, so Apple probably doesn’t care all that much about that.
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Honestly, it’s the lag that really gets me. Bluetooth, many (but not all) wireless keyboards and mice, screencasting. I feel like I’m being fed back my own voice with a delay; it is impossible to do anything. It is at best infuriating.
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Oopsie. Non Freudian slip.
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Back in my day we only communicated using wireless analog methods. After a day a playing in the woods my mom would use her Porch Voice® to call me in for dinner.
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False dichotomy. Engineers get quite religious when it comes to decisions on standards and implementation. Also when speaking of the audio jack, which of the many standards are we speaking of?
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Any religion here seems to be about claiming 3.5mm is broke, with no evidence except its age.
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Red herring. We are talking about the use of an analog connector that is implemented in billions of devices successfully. I didn’t see people arguing here about the different versions of it, since the assignment of left and right audio channels to the connector sections is highly standardized. It basically works, and everyone knows that. Granted, such arguments happen in other venues, but not when you’re talking about eliminating the thing entirely.
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The 3.5mm miniplug was terrible even before they added that second ring for a microphone on phones. I think it was high time it got replaced. But moving to all digital connections was in my opinion the wrong way to do it. Your phone needs a DAC and ADC anyway, on account of having a speaker and a microphone.
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This reminds me of an article about the audio collection at the Library of Congress. They have a severe “data rot” problem, with formats going out of style so quickly - digital audio disks, for example. The librarian said that, if it were up to them, they would convert everything over to vinyl disks (LPs), because they can be played with a mechanical device if necessary, and the information will be accessible for much longer. It would not depend on software or specialized hardware - a pin and a paper cup would do the trick in a pinch.
Actually, I just saw an early gramophone at a museum using just such a setup - a pleated paper disc-shaped speaker (invented by one of the Lumiere brothers) with the needle in the center.
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Surprisingly 1/16" audio jacks held up for me better than 1/8" jacks.
It goes without saying that 1/4" rules them all
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This coaxial connector was never very good. Insertion and deletion can lead to short circuits and reversed polarity. It is physically robust but a bit nasty to use.
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Plus there is an inherent delay in sending signals via Bluetooth. OK for music, but it puts the audio out of sync when watching video.
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