Don’t get me wrong. Apple removing audio jack was the biggest facepalm in smartphone history. And you can thank it for not being able to make an upgrade without sacrificing audio jack (and SD card too :/). But USB-C is getting standardized everywhere now (laptops, smartphones, etc.). What makes USB-C earphones not worth the switch?

  • You999@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    because studio equipment uses 3.5mm or other standard jacks (XLR for microphones for example) as they cause the lowest interference.

    Digital signaling is not susceptible to interference like analog signaling. Comparing three analog connectors to a digital signal is a false comparison. With a digital signal unless the interference is large enough to sway the voltage to the wrong side of the threshold it doesn’t matter as it will still register a one or a zero. Analog signaling on the other hand is very susceptible to interference unless you use balanced connections which uses wave interference to remove the added noise.

    • jetAEnglish
      141·
      1 year ago

      This a good argument for any form of digital audio transmission, except headphones. Headphones exist to covert some signal into sound waves for the ears. This a a intrinsically analog process. At some point the digital must become audio for the ears.

      The issues people have throwing away the classic transducer standard to sell rechargable airpods is valid. If phones had two USBC ports (top and bottom) it would help a bit, but it’s clear the real intention of dropping the headphone port was to sell airpods.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Love this comment! I remember reading about CD players when they were cutting edge. As kids, we were constantly frustrated with and fighting noise and hiss. I instantly understood the advantages of digital, game changing.

    • dog@suppo.fiEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      In the world of USB Headphones and Microphones, this is unfortunately false. 3.5mm jacks in general don’t get any interference from nearby cables/electronics, but USB cables do. This causes a bunch of noise and other issues that are annoying to fix, mostly requiring gear that allows taking the bad USB cable out, and replacing it with one that has shielding. (edit: this came out way too confident, take it with huge grain of salt)

      https://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/article/usb-cables-shielding-matters-as-well

      IF YOU DO actually work in professional studio environments and know what you’re talking about (it’s different to just knowing the physics of it), I’m obliged to listen more, because that’s the one field where shit goes wank.