| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 10 hours ago |
| This is 2026. iPhones use standard USB C headphones, you can charge your phone at the same time while using your wired headphones using MagSafe and you can even by low end $59 Beats Flex headphones that have all of the Apple magic. I’m going to need HN geeks to get over analog headphones from the 60s |
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| ▲ | et-al 9 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| In my experience, USB-C ports are more fragile than 3.5mm audio jacks for repeated plugging in / unplugging cycles. |
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| ▲ | SchemaLoad 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | I've never had a USB-C port fail with many of them being plugged / unplugged multiple times a day for years. At most they fill with dust you have to fish out. Aux ports would often get in a state where you had to very carefully position the jack for it to work. |
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| ▲ | OSaMaBiNLoGiN 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| As soon as those headphones sound better than the analog alternatives, sure. But they don't. And won't. |
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| ▲ | lynndotpy 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I am a huge 3.5mm jack defender and I am still upset at how Apple created a post-USB C world. But this is a common misconception. USB C headphones and 3.5mm headphones (and Bluetooth, USB A, etc) are all equally as "analog" as one another (with the exception of someone with all-analog equipment, of course). You need a DAC somewhere between the chip you're getting the digital signal from and the speakers that are playing an analog signal. And so the quality of that depends on (among other things) the quality of your DAC. With USB or Bluetooth headphones, the DAC is somewhere in the headphone. With the 3.5mm jack, the DAC is behind jack. If you have a device with a crummy built-in DAC giving you a noisy signal, you'll be better off using a USB DAC. I haven't used Apple's USB C earbuds, but Apple does make a $10 USB C to 3.5mm DAC that performs very very well for its price point. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | The difference is you always can buy USB C headphones with a known good consistent DAC. A 3.5 inch headphone jack serves no purpose in the age of USB C - even my wife’s mixing board has USB C input that she can plug her iPhone into. Next thing HN folks are going yo want the iPhone to come with a SCSI port. | | |
| ▲ | lynndotpy 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | I think that is silly, I haven't used an SCSI port since I was a tiny child but I use a 3.5mm almost every day of my life. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | And technology moves on either way. There is not a single high end phone that still comes with a 3.5 inch headphone jack in 2026. The number of people who care in 2026 is probably less than the number of people who want to run Linux on their phone. | | |
| ▲ | lynndotpy 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes, but that's different than what we're saying. I think many more people want and use 3.5mm jacks than they do SCSI ports. The 3.5mm jack is excellent. We're in a thread about a new device released with this wonderful port. Also, many people want to run Linux on their phone. About 7 in 10 smart phones run Linux, and smart phones are devices billions of humans use every day. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 5 hours ago | parent [-] | | We are in a thread on HN where you have people who complain about not having root access on your iPhone, want to run Linux on everything and bemoan the fact that most websites don’t work with JavaScript disabled. This is as far from the mainstream as you can possibly get. Come September it will have been a decade since Apple dropped the headphone port - the world has moved on | | |
| ▲ | lynndotpy 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | I would very much like root on my phone and most of the websites I use don't require JavaScript. Apple hasn't dropped the headphone port, they even announced a new product today called the Macbook Neo with one. There is even a thread on HN about it :) | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | You have a wee bit more space on a MacBook Neo than an iPhone. Do an experiment. Jump in a pool with both your iPhone and your MacBook and see which one works when you get out. |
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| ▲ | Kirby64 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Why do they need to sound better? Also, in a lot of instances, they do sound better because they can offer powered functionality such as ANC. Can’t get that with a truly analog headphone. I’d never use analog headphones on a plane, for instance. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 8 hours ago | parent [-] | | I can’t think of an instance where analog headphones would sound better than USB C headphones using the same hardware. |
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| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | So USB headphones sound worse than analog ones? Does vinyl sound better to you to than CDs? |
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| ▲ | RhysU 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Low-end wired earbuds come in packages with dozens of units. I buy cheap earbuds because my kids love breaking them. Not everyone optimizes for the same thing. Analog remains the bees knees in certain settings. |
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