this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
615 points (95.3% liked)

Technology

61336 readers
3353 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

On a recent post, there were a lot of comments, which said that they were missing the headphones on newer mobile devices.

How many actually use the headphone jack?

I ask, because I have one on my phone, since I really wanted one, but I rarely use it. Like Tops 1/Month.

(page 7) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use mine, both on my phone and tablet.

I have a bluetooth headphone, but the hassle of dealing with battery dying out, then having to reach for my pocket in a crowded bus to put it back on the pod/charger isn't worth it. I nearly lost one of the pieces because it fell off my ear. Also, the only other situation where it'd be good, which is having it in my ears while I do house chores without the phone in my pocket, suffers from "wall interference".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I don't use it much, but I do appreciate the one I have on my phone, since I don't always have my BT earbuds with me. Whereas I usually always have some cheap wired earbuds somewhere with me.

[–] time_lord 4 points 1 year ago

I don't, but I've had about 5 years to replace all of my perfectly good cables with crappy bluetooth audio/dongles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

When I used to have a phone with a headphone jack and my car only had a radio/cd player, I always used it to get my phone’s audio into the car for navigation and music.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 4 points 1 year ago

Daily.

Driving to and from work it plugs into my car and at work it plugs into my headset.

[–] Professorozone 4 points 1 year ago

Every Monday when I game with a buddy online.

[–] dani 4 points 1 year ago

I would if it had one.

[–] Okami_No_Rei 4 points 1 year ago

I use it daily for connecting it to my car stereo, and about once a month when I mow my lawn or have to fly on a plane. I'll never buy a phone without one.

I prefer wired headphones. I don't want to worry about keeping them charged, and the few pairs of wireless headphones I have tried died or had the buttons stop working after a few uses from getting waterlogged with sweat, while I've been using the same pair of $6 wired headphones for 10 years without issues.

I don't care for Bluetooth or USB audio connections as they don't always work intuitively, they might take multiple button presses to set up, and every manufacturer seems to think they need to be set up in a slightly different way, while the auxiliary audio cable just works with no setup.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

When I was looking for a new phone I gave up and bought a usb c dac/amp from Fiio. Ended up buying a phone from Sony which does have a 3.5 port (and sd card too) but continue to use the dongle anyway as it sounds better. Use it 2-3 times a week

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-x-jade-audio-ka1-dac-amp.25817/reviews

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I use it regularly on steam deck, but not phone

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I only bought wireless headphones because the Galaxy Note 10 didn't have an aux, and required their own overpriced adapter to connect through USB-C. I bike a lot while listening to music and hate when the headphones run out of battery halfway through my ride.

[–] Robboman93 3 points 1 year ago

I use it everyday, I still like wired earphones a lot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I used to use mine almost every day with the same set of earbuds that I've had for probably close to a decade at this point. Since getting a phone without a jack, I listen to music significantly less now which is quite upsetting. I'm not the type to use the speaker on the phone since I've always seen that as rude, and the wireless earbuds that I have are just inconvenient to use at best and not the same quality compared to the wired ones (That's not to say that they're poor quality but I can absolutely tell the difference on my favourite songs).

I've been very tempted to just go back to my old phone once the contract on my current one has ended if modern phones are going to move away from 3.5mm jacks.

It has been an excellent universal standard for decades and the arguments about it being obsolete make no sense as it isn't being replaced by something superior, it's just being deleted entirely and a cumbersome workaround is being sold as a positive thing. The only real argument I can see for deleting the jack is that it saves the manufacturers a couple of pennies per unit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I would if I had one. I still use wired headphones so I have to either use specific usb headphones (which are not my favourite kind) or a dongle so I can use my preferred headphones which are a pair of over ear clip on ones. There are no wireless versions of those kinds of headphones.

[–] Iseja 3 points 1 year ago

Used to use it daily but dropped it a few too many times with a cable inserted and now it can only be used in the car in a very specific angle.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Never.

You’ll never hear from the people who don’t miss it because it’s nothing for us to talk about, so it seems like everyone only wants them back when in reality the vast majority don’t care.

[–] Ejh3k 3 points 1 year ago

I had wired headphones for very specific times, and since my new phone doesn't have the jack I'm not fully sure how I'll deal in those situations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Since I went bluetooth I have to charge constantly which is annoying. But at the same time while I was wired the cBle always got in the way in a way so the phone would fall on the street or some hard floor at least omce but sometimes twice a year and breal.

Since I'm on bluetooth I didn't break any screen in the last 5 years. I'M NOT GOING BACK TO WIRED, IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE.

[–] cttttt 3 points 1 year ago

When the 3.5-less trend started setting in, I still had a phone with a headphone jack but started looking into wireless Bluetooth digital audio convertors just to prepare myself for the reality that it'll eventually be hard to find a phone that's both....good...and that I could plug my IEMs into.

One I settled on was the Radsone ES100. Besides allowing me to continue to use my headphones, one feature I really liked was its ability to store equalizer settings that could be used with any source, whether it be a Bluetooth device or one I plug the DAC into via USB. I found that there were equalizer apps for Android, but they kept getting killed because of memory limitations I guess. This device externalized the EQ.

Anyways some of the folks who made that branched off and made an even better version, the Qudelix 5K. It has the same features but does a better job of simultaneously connecting to multiple devices (but sadly it doesn't mix the sources...it just has a priority 😔😔😔😔). So I grabbed that upgrade and now the headphone side of my audio is locked in.

I found that getting a Bluetooth DAC helped me feel better about the trend of removing a standard audio connector from devices (which I gotta say, still makes no sense). It still frustrates me that I need to walk around with another device and the limitations of Bluetooth are annoying, but the cool thing is that when my last 3.5mm jack equip device (OnePlus 5) just stopped turning on, I just grabbed a random replacement phone (Pixel 5) and kept the same audio chain.

tl;dr - Consider just accepting that this is the trend for phones these days and try a portable Bluetooth (or even USB) DAC. When you find one you like, moving to any source will be less stressful. It won't matter if it has a headphone jack: you'll be able to focus on other features or even just get a less costly device that'll sound identical to what u know.

[–] FishFace 3 points 1 year ago

I use mine fairly often. I don't actually listen to music all that much but sometimes I do when my phone is my only data source, and I don't have wireless headphones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Never ever. It wasn't the reason why I got my current phone, but I thought I would use it at least sometimes. I don't.

[–] Gigan 3 points 1 year ago

I use it several times a week. I specifically bought a phone that still had a headphone jack. I'm over bluetooth earbuds. Too expensive, too easy to lose, too easy to fall out of my ears and break.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Right now at work I would use one but my phone (Xperia XZ3) doesn't have a headphone jack. So I use an old Bluetooth Headset with a jack. The whole setup were presents from friends and my boss, so I wouldn't complain about any of that. 📱🎧 👍

But thinking about it: It's totally stupid to build a phone without a headphone jack. My previous phone (XZ) 🥲 had one and it was waterproof.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use it every day

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Quite frequently for sure. I'm a musician in a band, a DJ, and working on becoming more of a producer. Plugging in for amplifying or sampling happens fairly often. Being an audiophile, I'm also partial to wired connections over Bluetooth which can be more unreliable in performance settings. Never wanted to mess with battery powered phones too. Already have charger fatigue pretty bad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I loved the headphone jack on the S10, but other issues I had with the charging port made me switch to an S23 at the beginning of this year. I generally do not like wireless headphones due to the possibility of losing them, but using wired headphones and requiring an adapter to use them (because the S23 has no headphone jack) is a pain.

Overall, due to the specific nature of my phone, I'd use wireless headphones to regain the ability to answer and respond to phone calls while walking and listening to music. If I could get a Galaxy S class of phone with a headphone jack again, regardless of the thickness, I'd 100% be all over it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I thought I'd use it when I got my phone but I've since found Bluetooth headphones that are actually convenient so I don't. Now this headphone form factor is dying so I might go back to wired once they stop working. I hope the jack still exists by then.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use a USB C dongle sometimes which works great, but mostly wireless these days

[–] Dremor 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I had wired headphones, went to a good wireless one (Sony WH-1000XM3), and I will never go back.

Most people I know that want the headphones jack back want it to be able to use good quality wired headphones they already own, mainly because they can't afford (or just don't want to buy) a good quality wireless one.

Seriously. If you can buy a new mid-range smartphone, you have enough to buy premium wireless headphones. If you can't, most cheap smartphones have audio jacks. Just skip this smartphone generation to buy good wireless headphones and you are set for years.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My phones don't have one but I use a headphone jack on my tablet.

[–] eek2121 3 points 1 year ago

I have not owned a phone with a headphone jack in a long time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Daily. Mostly Spotify and Youtube or when I don't want to listen to my wife.

[–] tjsauce 3 points 1 year ago

I used to use it, before buying a USB C headphone amp cause my headphones lacked bass

[–] AlphaOmega 3 points 1 year ago

When I had a motorcycle. This was a daily use item. Now I only use them when out on walks/hiking

[–] thorbot 3 points 1 year ago

I never do, because it doesn't have one

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Well I tried shoving the wire up my own ass but I prefer the songs on my phone.

[–] spikederailed 3 points 1 year ago

I did everyday in my car for listening to music when I still had my Pixel4a. Sadly it started to die and I replaced it with a Pixel 8(sans headphone jack) and had to buy a Bluetooth -> aux adapter.

[–] Revonult 3 points 1 year ago

If mine had one I would use it everyday. Idk why but I love wired headphones wah more than earbuds.

[–] ohlaph 3 points 1 year ago

I used to. Then I bought a new phone and forgot to check to see if it had one. It did not.

[–] ajrwill 3 points 1 year ago

Used to back when I was in high school and it was more common, but bluetooth earbuds have gotten really good sound-wise that the hassle of wires/dac/adapter isn't worth it nowadays for me and basically everyone I know.

Wired headphones sound better usually but I think anyone claiming they're superior to bluetooth in every way is being disingenuous and hasn't tried modern buds.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›