I was asked the other day why companies insist so much about dropping the headphone jack from modern smartphone models. That isn’t this a loss in sound quality because you are ditching a trusty analog output for a digital alternative? While it is quite unfortunate that this is happening, it isn’t happening for the reasons some may think, and it isn’t taking away your sound quality (in most cases).
Personally, I have been holding back on upgrading my smartphone for a number of other reasons (like smartphones simply becoming far too expensive to upgrade every other year). The headphone jack is one of the least important reasons for my holding out though (although it is there). For me, it is just a thing of convenience more than anything else.
I enjoy having a headphone jack as it means I don’t have to carry around an adapter everywhere I go. I also make use of magnetic adapters for the USB or Lightning ports on all of my devices so that I can use one cable to connect to any of them vs having multiple cables everywhere I go. If I made use of an adapter for headphone connections, I’d be pulling the magnetic adapter in and out every time, increasing my chance of losing it. It’s a laughable dilemma, but I try my best to minimize the things I have to worry about in a day.
Eventually, I will have to upgrade. The model I have now was a Samsung flagship in its day, but it is four years old now and getting slower as apps evolve toward devices with faster resources and larger capacities. I’m starting to find that I am running out of space often, forcing me to choose which apps to keep and which ones to delete. So I will have to bite the bullet soon and consider that I will be spending a lot of money that I don’t want to, on a new device. Sadly, all of the modern flagship Samsung models are missing the headphone jack now, so it will also mean I will lose that feature. One thing I won’t lose though is sound quality.
Loss of sound quality is a fallacy in most cases. People tend to associate the headphone jack with old-school trusty analog sound. The type of sound you can’t always beat in the digital world. Therefore, losing the jack would lead to a loss in sound quality, right? Not really. The smartphone is a digital device, which means you are making use of conversion. True analog sound involves the manipulation of voltage through and through–no converting it to digital anywhere in the mix. With a smartphone, you are converting digital to analog in order to make use of a headphone port.
I say “not really” because in most cases you aren’t going to lose anything. The only way you will is if the smartphone with the headphone jack has a built-in high-res DAC associated with the jack. If so, then you could be losing something if it doesn’t offer a USB-C or Lightning alternative. If it does not, then you would be forced to buy into a USB-C adapter with a built-in DAC (you can find some that we have reviewed here). The latter does lead to an additional cost and if it doesn’t come with this, then yes, you are losing something.
In most cases, you aren’t though. It’s still the same digital to analog conversion, only taken external vs built-in. Nothing much has changed outside of the inconvenience of having to carry around an adapter if you ever want to use headphones. If you forget your adapter at home, then you don’t get to use headphones unless they are wireless. That is what makes it a huge pain in the rump and causes me to show hesitation.
So why do smartphone manufacturers do this? It’s part of their constant goal of slimming down the phone and dedicating all of the internal space for the screen, resources, and battery life. Apparently, the headphone jack is just big enough to be in the way of this path toward innovation. That and maybe these engineers have a grudge against the world (which is a bit unlikely).
There is also a continued push toward making everything wireless. Which does take away from audio quality compared to an analog or digital wired connection. Bluetooth has come a long way over the years, but it still isn’t equal to a wired connection of any kind, yet. We are close as devices slowly pick up BT 5.2 and the technologies it supports. However, we are still likely a generation or two away from being equal to a wired digital connection. This is all due to compression rates more than anything else.
So yes, it is a pain in the arse that companies are forcing us to lose the headphone jack. I say force since it is their decision after all, not ours. However, sound quality is likely going to be the least of your concerns (or not a concern at all). It’s convenience and cost that will haunt you. At least, until wireless alternatives are up to speed with everything else.
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November 16, 2021 at 03:53AM
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Why losing the headphone jack on a smartphone isn't a loss in sound quality - Poc Network
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