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The 19th Century plug that's still being used

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Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#121

Post by dredmorbius »

tonmoy wrote: post #81
raverbashing wrote: post #3

"Thinner phone" is a stupid requirement. A thinner phone will be mechanically weaker. Yes, Apple retired Floppy disks and DVD readers, because those were replaced by something better. This is not the case here. A Bluetooth headphone will give you an inferior experience. A lightning converter will give you a worse experience because I can bet it doesn't stay plugged as firmly as a headphone in a high vibration situati…

To use a 3.5mm jack headset you need to add power amplifiers inside the phone, do proper impedance matching and hope that noise in the path does not corrupt the data. But sending power and digital data solves all these problems, the wires don't need to be as well made either!

You've simply moved all those pieces outside the phone, increased headphone cost, and decreased modularity via dedicated Bluetooth pairing.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#122

Post by thaumasiotes »

dredmorbius wrote: post #120
thaumasiotes wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming you want to listen to music, latency really doesn't matter much.

I mean, nobody would ever want to use a phone to talk to someone, amirite?

I certainly wouldn't.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#123

Post by Fuxy »

entee wrote: post #10
raverbashing wrote: post #3

"Thinner phone" is a stupid requirement. A thinner phone will be mechanically weaker. Yes, Apple retired Floppy disks and DVD readers, because those were replaced by something better. This is not the case here. A Bluetooth headphone will give you an inferior experience. A lightning converter will give you a worse experience because I can bet it doesn't stay plugged as firmly as a headphone in a high vibration situati…

I agree with the bluetooth being inferior, I hate that the standard headphone jack is going away. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. That said I've been told that the 3.5mm jack takes up a surprising amount of internal space, and that between freeing up that space and a few other tweaks, getting rid of the jack substantially boosts battery life. Still, I think it's not a great trade-off, now you have to babysit a new…

I just got the One Plus 3 which has the USB3 type C and the 3.5mm jack right next to each other and I have to say the jack is only slightly larger so I don't see the point of replacing it.

Oh and it felt too damn thin as it is I was constantly wary I would accidentally bend it or scratch the metal casing so i got a rubberised cover. Now it feels a lot better to hold.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#124

Post by morsch »

theshrike79 wrote: post #91
cm2187 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst is that the apple-issued headphones are and have always been absolutely crap. If fact in public transports when you hear the loud music of a fellow passenger, it is almost always the crappy, leaky headphones that come with the iphone. If I ever buy an audio jack free iphone (god save), the last company I will purchase headphones from is Apple.

Head-fi begs to differ with its four star review: http://www.head-fi.org/products/apple-earpods-with-remote-an... The users on head-fi aren't your normal users, these are actual audiophiles.

I'm sure they are fine for $15 headphones and the reviews judge them accordingly. And then go back to using IEMs that go for 10x the money. Most of the reviews specifically mention the fact that they lack isolation, making them a pretty bad choice in public, for your own and everybody else's benefit.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#125

Post by msoucy »

cm2187 wrote: post #84
mdip wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I'm with you and won't be buying one for reasons beyond the 3.5mm jack (but that would be a deal breaker if I was on the fence), I'll be more surprised if the removal of that feature stops scores of people lining up to get the latest phone (along with a new set of over-priced headphones). At the end of the day, it's "give up the 3.5mm jack" or "don't get the latest iPhone " and I'll wager that they'll have no p…

The worst is that the apple-issued headphones are and have always been absolutely crap. If fact in public transports when you hear the loud music of a fellow passenger, it is almost always the crappy, leaky headphones that come with the iphone. If I ever buy an audio jack free iphone (god save), the last company I will purchase headphones from is Apple.

My neighbor at work listens nearly exclusively to country music, using Apple buds. I was actually concerned for his ears, until he demonstrated that it was just sound leakage. Now I'm just concerned for my own ears.

I hate country.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#126

Post by drunken-serval »

jeffbush wrote: post #83

While working on mobile phones, I've found a number of problems with the TRS style jack. One is they trap lint internally, which can often result in the internal switch that detects insertion permanently thinking there is a headphone in it (Google "phone thinks headphones are in"). The external speaker is usually muted when a jack is inserted, so when this happens, the phone doesn't make any sounds. Lint is very diff…

> Lint is very difficult to remove from the outside the connector.

All one needs is a toothpick and a little patience.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#127

Post by drunken-serval »

lmm wrote: post #115
jeffbush wrote: post #83

While working on mobile phones, I've found a number of problems with the TRS style jack. One is they trap lint internally, which can often result in the internal switch that detects insertion permanently thinking there is a headphone in it (Google "phone thinks headphones are in"). The external speaker is usually muted when a jack is inserted, so when this happens, the phone doesn't make any sounds. Lint is very diff…

The inline remote on on my galaxy's wired headphones lets me double tap to skip forward, triple tap to skip back.

The iPhone also has this capability. The Overcast app optionally supports it. (It's off by default.)

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#128

Post by pvdebbe »

Camillo wrote: post #77
raverbashing wrote: post #3

"Thinner phone" is a stupid requirement. A thinner phone will be mechanically weaker. Yes, Apple retired Floppy disks and DVD readers, because those were replaced by something better. This is not the case here. A Bluetooth headphone will give you an inferior experience. A lightning converter will give you a worse experience because I can bet it doesn't stay plugged as firmly as a headphone in a high vibration situati…

> "Thinner phone" is a stupid requirement. You may think that the current iPhones are thin enough, but almost nobody actually uses the phone on its own. You need to take into account the thickness of the case, and now that people are playing Pokemon Go, it really needs to be a battery case, which is even thicker. So the base phone needs to be thinner. (They can't just make the phone a little thicker and put the extra…

Other manufacturers seem to be able to design devices that have the sturdiness and the battery such that extra cases aren't required in everyday use.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#129

Post by pvdebbe »

onion2k wrote: post #15
hackaflocka wrote: post #5

And it works beautifully. When for some reason, my bluetooth headphone's connectivity is acting up (happens often), I can take my wired headphone and plug it in without even looking, knowing that it WILL work. One of my car's electric windows has stopped working. For my next car, I want something where there's a fallback to a mechanical crank (the way car windows used to be).

I'm just old enough to remember cars with mechanical hand cranks to open the windows. You couldn't open the passenger side window if you were driving. It was dangerous to open the driver's side window if there was a lot going on. The rear passenger windows often didn't open at all in cheaper cars. The number of times you'd leave a window open by mistake was far higher because cars didn't alert you about it. I'd much…

It's absolutely unsafe to handcrank windows while driving, but when is that ever needed? I long for my old hand-cranked-window MB 200D days when my newer Toyota has 3 failed electrical windows out of four. And it's costing so much I only fixed my/driver side window.

Re: The 19th Century plug that's still being used

#130

Post by Tobold »

e12e wrote: post #64
raverbashing wrote: post #3

"Thinner phone" is a stupid requirement. A thinner phone will be mechanically weaker. Yes, Apple retired Floppy disks and DVD readers, because those were replaced by something better. This is not the case here. A Bluetooth headphone will give you an inferior experience. A lightning converter will give you a worse experience because I can bet it doesn't stay plugged as firmly as a headphone in a high vibration situati…

I'd say bluetooth is good enough for using the device(s) as a phone - but a jack might be better for connecting a high-end stereo system. On the other hand, even for that, you would probably be even better off with a digital output, and a good DAC (either in the amplifier, or as a separate unit). FWIW I recently got one of these: http://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-e3 and I'm very happy (not for use…

I'm going to assume the sound is fine on the Soundblaster, but How is the battery on that thing?

Does it last the full day and them some, like my phone does?

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