Flashback: the headphone jack has been around for over 100 years, still has a place on phones

15 March 2020
The simple 3.5mm plug is a jack of all trades, if you'll pardon the pun. It handles music and call, acts as an FM antenna and even a TV out port.

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  • j
  • jayant
  • FYk
  • 17 Mar 2020

mtu, 16 Mar 2020Please continue doing the wired audio tests for phones with... moreI also want Gsmarena to continue to provide audio test which was discontinued.It helped me decide while purchasing phone.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • PZs
    • 17 Mar 2020

    have to understand this ... the big brothers must know what the gadget doing

    with 3.5 mm analog jack that deliver honest audiophile quality, the big brothers dont know what the user listening and/or doing

    with digital wireless connection, big brothers becoming like god, they can even insert meta suggestions embedded in the audio that may alter the user brain waves

    and they doing marketings with the words like, creating better user experiences, shaping the future, creating safer environment, and so on ... with only one goal in mind ... crowd control

      for PS2 port, serial port, or printer port on back side of a computer, these can be removed without objection. the newer USB port performs better, and had completely did what those legacy ports did. and did better.

      3.5MM jack is a different thing. there must be an analogue way to connect the passive speaker to the sound source. 3.5MM jack would be still here on larger size audio equipment in foreseeable future. The Size of the earphone cans are limited. more spaces reserved for placing in the speaker(s), better qualities the sound could be.

      now those wireless earphone models, had amazingly put in the DAC, AMP, Batteries in that tiny earphone cans, no one can expect the sound would be good. there are interference in such small space. sound are output, but those are not high quality sound.

      High quality sound could wake up the soul, sound is the thing that connect the soul most directly. High quality sound inspires better thought, new thought. I hope the phone makers could understand what sound is, why sound quality is such important. communicate more with those makers who know sound.

      newer phone models should aim for a higher quality, not going to an opposite direction

        Love the Community, 16 Mar 2020Bruh, only you cared about this enough to give your own pos... moreRead the comments section here.
        Clearly people want an all-or-nothing. They don't want a beautiful device that has many features. No they want something beautiful and stylish, even if it means it is slippery, not-durable, and lacks many features. Or they want a work-horse something they can depend on day in or day out. The last option is like a counter-culture movement of recent. You give people free software with the caveat of privacy, and instead they want open software and their choice of security. Or you give people these shiny objects to admire in an office, and instead they want something rough and sturdy to take to the mountains.

        Besides, mobile phones have lots of compromises. Each choice or addition, is a vote to not include a dozen other things. So you can't have one device which is tiny, sleek and beautiful... but at the same time has the largest screen, battery, and most sensors... and also is tough, and easy to refurbish.

        That's why after careful consideration, I truly think the BEST phone, is the one that's in one of these three categories. And it is up to the user, to decide which personality they are, and hence which device suits their wants/needs best. My analogy to cars was pretty on point, think of one as like a Porsche 911.... its sleek, beautiful, fast, but uncomfortable to sit and lacks many features. But it is the dream car for some people. For others it is the Jeep Wrangler, its tough, solid, easy to service but the ride is noisy and parking can be difficult. It's a dream car of some people, especially to keep this "for life". Then there's the Subaru Forester. It's not quite rugged but not quite sleek, but it drives comfortably and parks easily. For others, this is their best car, it ticks all the boxes and isn't being pretentious.

        Besides, my comment got removed. Should I repost it?

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • tPG
          • 17 Mar 2020

          This prevents me from having bluetooth brain-fried.

            • m
            • mtu
            • HCm
            • 16 Mar 2020

            taghack, 16 Mar 2020Hi, First off, thank you for voicing your concerns. We try... morePlease continue doing the wired audio tests for phones with a 3.5mm audio jack. As you can see from all the comments on here and your page announcing stopping these tests, a lot of people still highly value them. As you still have the test equipment and there are not that many phones with the jack, it wouldn't be too much extra work for you.

            Thanks

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • Q{4
              • 16 Mar 2020

              TimApple, 16 Mar 2020Headphone jack is gone and all of you have to accept it. It... moreHahaha glue or tape us exactly when I think of a solution to this. Way easier than a headphone jack being installed by the manufacturer.

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • Q{4
                • 16 Mar 2020

                q8peace, 16 Mar 2020the headphone jack is really bad in my car is always discon... moreThats super interesting

                  Flgshp2020, 16 Mar 2020Just compare the dac provided by both companies and you'll ... more1. Sometimes phones with more RAM are slower than their competitors with less RAM. Only real life test will tell.
                  2. There is no information what kind of DAC is used in Xperia 1 II.

                  So we will see once Xperia 1 II is released.

                    People you don't want to introduce additional EMI in between so forget about magnetic USB cables. Right now to go would be OTG adopter with 17 KOhm's tiristor or silver plated cables.

                      • q
                      • q8peace
                      • L1w
                      • 16 Mar 2020

                      the headphone jack is really bad in my car is always disconnect when i touched it seems its lose and the way i always have wired is no more thing to me / i just switch to wireless so much convenient bluetooth much comfort and also wifi usb headphone also great

                        Flgshp2020, 16 Mar 2020Just compare the dac provided by both companies and you'll ... more& when you compare both DAC's (ESS ES9028KM2 & QC one) you will see very similar specs. SABRE's DAC's are very sensitive thing's and prone in picking up noise which is a reason why they are described as bright sounding. LG did a great implementation of it on G8 at least where it reaches 116 dB SINAD with UAPP and 112 with LG's music player,but then also menaged to get the QC DAC in the SoC to 107 DB so it's not about DAC per see. What they did utterly wrong whose the limiting output power (mV) for low impedance headaphones so it only can drive 16 Ohm's one's good enough & even so in "quad DAC" mode. I currently use external battery powered DAC with Sony which is ES9018K2M DAC + Sabre9601k AMP (ES9028KM2 integrates pretty much same Amp which loses some oompah [5~10 mV at 32 Ohm's] pretty much same DAC), it's not very elegant solution but it serves the purpose ideally for 32~40 Ohm's earphones/headaphones while it can satisfactory drive 64 Ohm's one's but that's not ideal use case. I actually modified DAC shielding with thin layer (0.3 mm equivalent to 63~65 dB) of graphite film & use silver plated USB cable result is: better dynamics, better low end, mids aren't elevated anymore and it's not fast & that much sharp and more also physicality depth & wide improved very much. Now it sounds like AKM but with better dynamics. It all coasted me less than 100$ (TempoTec Sonata iDSD DAC 63$, Shanling L2 cable 25 $ and sheat of graphite film with adhesive 2.5$) and a little time.

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • 85g
                          • 16 Mar 2020

                          Long life to 3.5 audio jack. I fail to understand people which want to use BT headphones (not a pinnacle of anything):

                          1) They still have worse audio quality, no matter the standard
                          2) You have autonomy issues (another battery to recharge every day)
                          3) You are going to have another radio transmitter and receiver in your body. BT is a low frequency transmission, but even there, you are inserting it right inside your head through the ears, do you understand what that means? The major problem with radio and the body is distance, the closer you are to the emitter/receptor, the more they will harm you: Do you really want an antenna inside your head for not having a damn simple cable hanging? Think again...

                            • D
                            • AnonD-909757
                            • 3g5
                            • 16 Mar 2020

                            S Yu, 16 Mar 2020I have a magnetic charging cable-adaptor right now, it real... moreI had a magnetic adapter for a dock, I'll soon goes full magnetic cables for the house's phones as it is more convenient.
                            It is super duper easy, and technically it already exist (there is magnetic jack, but those aren't for smartphone).
                            How easy to detach would be down to how strong the magnet in the adapter would be, we could as well have "regular" as the one provided in the box, weaker one for those who want/need easier detachment, and another with a longer magnet for more strength.
                            Nothing even prevent to extend how far the outer ring can be, meaning if a smartphone have a really large one and an adapter as big is provided, it will be really difficult to accidentally disconnect it.
                            Also keep in mind that with current magnetic adapter, it is the tiny phone side adapter who is magnetic and the cable side is just a metal contacter, my idea for many reasons switch it and the magnet is on the jack or usb adapter, meaning it it can be way stronger if needed, and already we can lift a phone with it, which is quite strong enough !
                            Actually I was about to contact Oppo to give them this idea along with many other in exchange for free phones (reasonable number, not for selling them, personal use only) and them helping me out when I would bring idea to other compagnies by confirming I am the inventor of X number of idea they use (and potentially also making royalties on the revenues they would made from other companies using those idea), which, based on all the idea I have (those I discuss on the internet aren't my important ones obviously) would have been the deal of the century for them as it would cost them virtually nothing, actually a negative amount since they would make more profits than they would loss...
                            My idea was to get their help to having more credibility to expose big idea to companies like Tesla as I have quite a lot of idea about self driving and electric cars.
                            But I saw how bad the Find X2 (which actually motivated me to choose Oppo) has become with his punch hole, removal of 3D facial recognition and curved edges...
                            And I also saw how Tesla did negative things to some owners through distance control (like removing features), which made me back away from contacting them both.
                            Otherwise it would already had been done in labs/test phones.

                            But, it have been technically kind of already done with the Xiaomi Black Shark 3 Pro having magnetic connectors on the back, the rest is only a matter of time, which is why I started to talk about this particular idea.
                            But it would be quite easy to do, it is literally as easy as making a jack for the phone side, even more because you only have rings rather than layers of conductive materials, and the adapter is also quite simple, like a regular jack to jack adapter but with the easy to make flat end and a magnet behind it.

                              • S
                              • S Yu
                              • vUG
                              • 16 Mar 2020

                              taghack, 16 Mar 2020Hi, First off, thank you for voicing your concerns. We try... more...and...whether or not there's a forced conversion to 48KHz output.

                                • S
                                • S Yu
                                • vUG
                                • 16 Mar 2020

                                AnonD-909757, 16 Mar 2020I didn't read the comments (not even the whole article), I ... moreI have a magnetic charging cable-adaptor right now, it really doesn't seem to take much to take the magnetic end of the cable and convert the cable side into a completely analog 3.5mm socket. Very good idea (if only the magnetic connection would be too easy to detach) but nobody's done this yet.

                                  • F
                                  • AnonF-844591
                                  • xhm
                                  • 16 Mar 2020

                                  Love the Community, 15 Mar 2020Is there any bluetooth amplifiers that runs on Bluetooth 5.... moreNot sure about 5.1 but plenty of bt amp support ldac which is the pinnacle of wireless audio right now.

                                    Anonymous, 16 Mar 2020Thats my bro. PS I own Sony headphones and earphone like ma... moreWhich ones do you have? I got XB550 and XB50

                                      • Q
                                      • Qwericus
                                      • qaZ
                                      • 16 Mar 2020

                                      YUKI93, 16 Mar 2020Whoever said that people who stick to 3.5mm audio jack is s... moreYUKI93 has a very good point here. Headphone plugs definitely have their place today despite being an old design. Secure connections. Fair to very good quality construction and audio. If it gets broken replacement is easy to find and generally inexpensive. Wish that micro jacks and plugs were used in smartphones instead of mini ones but appears that's not going to happen. Will keep using my phone with minis until they wear out.

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-909757
                                        • 3g5
                                        • 16 Mar 2020

                                        I didn't read the comments (not even the whole article), I just saw there is a shit show going on about the Jack, so here is my point of view about it :
                                        The Jack have pro and cons.
                                        Cons being :
                                        _It take space inside the phone.
                                        _It is hard to make waterproof
                                        _It lets dust and other things get in unlike 100% wireless phone.
                                        _If bent it can break and even damage the whole phone's body with it.

                                        So yeah it doesn't seem particularly attractive seen from this angle, but lets now see the pros :
                                        _It is a really really simple to make which mean it don't cost much.
                                        _Since it is analogical it have a really high quality, even pro still use it.
                                        _Even though there is multiple sizes, the adapter cost pennies and don't affect quality.
                                        _First alternative being USB to Jack but the USB also have the same cons and prevent to recharge the phone while using it.
                                        _Second alternative being Bluetooth which consume a lot more battery and have a limited bandwidth not adapted for high quality music (it is more suited for wireless headset for basic communication) and the peripheral depend on battery to work (a lot won't work on wired mode).
                                        _Having one automatically make the phone compatible with a really high number of audio devices, from Hi-Fi or music equipment, to a lot of headphone and headset ranging from affordable but nice quality up to audiophile grade high quality headphone with brands like Schneider, as example, my Corsair Void Pro who plug himself with jack into its USB sound card is totally compatible with phone having headphone jack, my GF borrowed it many time to look at movies or meditating without exterior disturbances on her phone while still charging it, which can't be done without either a bluetooth to jack adapter or paying for another headset.

                                        That being said, wouldn't it be great if we could still have a Jack compatible device without having the cons linked with having physical ports ?
                                        Well, I actually have a solution, it is simple, while it require a physical adapter to work, it have the advantage of making the phone having a pseudo port compatible with all jack sizes (depending on the adapter you use) and it is a physical adapter like the X size jack to Y size Jack.
                                        Here is the idea :
                                        The phone have a simple conical (for alignement, but still quite flat) area made of 3 conductive rings and an inner conductive area, all 4 being separated by an insulating material, like typical jack segments.
                                        On the other hand you have a really simple jack to this almost flat jack like area, but on the adapter side, it is magnetic.
                                        For those who don't know about it, there is an almost identical concept who already exist for USB :
                                        https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3a/b5/3f/3ab53fc610341d81572fc56b8bf12e25.jpg
                                        And it work really well :
                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr8BB84pGBk
                                        But rather than having a small adapter you plug inside the phone and who is itself a magnet, you have a simple contact area and the adapter to which you plug your jack is the magnetic part.
                                        It mean virtually no internal space taken except by the wires themselves, since it is, like the antennas, part of the body, it have no waterproofing or dust issue (and it can be wiped with your finger anyway) and if you bend it, it simply disconnect as it is only magnetically held, and having multiples adapters allow it to be compatible with any jack size, 2.5, 3.5, 4.4 and even the monstrous 6.35 jack.
                                        It have virtually no wear appart from the metal on metal contact and it would be really cheap to produce, the phone side would be the cheapest as it is only metal contacter with wires on the inside part of the phone, and the adapter would be like a regular Jack X to Y but with a flat part and a neodymium magnet, even if we loose or demagnetize it, it would be cheap to replace, probably 10$ and the magnet itself don't affect the audio quality.
                                        So thanks to an adapter and a little bit of metal on the phone, we could not only keep the Jack compatibility on smartphone with all its advantages and few others, but with all disadvantages gone.

                                        By the way, we could do the same with the USB port, which would allow to make a reversible (360°) USB C and micro USB compatible connector thanks to the adapter !
                                        I don't see why anyone would prefer regular jack or no jack at all over this alternative as it merge the best of the two.