Opinion: Leave The 3.5mm Audio Jack Alone!

It’s rant time. Apple has pretty much confirmed that it’s dropping the humble 3.5mm audio jack from its upcoming iPhone, replacing it with the digital-only Lightning connector. Now it’s Intel’s turn by talking up the benefits of USB Type-C replacing the ubiquitous audio connector too. Apple, Intel, can we please stop this nonsense?

Analog is messy, we get that. It doesn’t play well with the mostly digital nature of modern electronics, and is prone to all kinds of interference, such as the wide variety of radio signals and antennas that are packed into modern phones. The 3.5mm connector is somewhat bulky too, limiting how flat devices can be (Apple’s biggest criticism). Also, packing in the connector, Analog-to-Digital converter and Op-amp takes up precious PCB real estate used for all the gyros, sensors, GPS, antennas and battery. It’s quite clear that audio needs to go, I mean, everyone uses Bluetooth right?

Apple going with the Lightning connector makes some sort of sense, since it’s already invested into the connector and standard, and now wants to capitalize on it, freeing up space for other things in the process. But Intel championing USB Type-C is just baffling. USB is not the most power efficient standard going, despite its versatility, but both Lightning and Type-C have the same flaw: The single connector.

How often do you listen to music with headphones or IEMs, and charge your device at the same time? Perhaps you don’t even notice you’re doing it. If the 3.5mm audio connector is dropped and moved over to a single connector gateway, it’s going to cause all kinds of ‘first world problems’. You can get Lightning or USB hubs, but how many third party adapters are really going to handle charging the phone and playing audio reliably at the same time? How much will those hubs cost?

There are ways around the single connector, but it’s the extra cost of yet another adapter you need, and you can be sure manufacturers aren’t going to include one as part of the initial purchase. All that space you saved on the phone by removing the connector and audio circuit… you just shift to a near mandatory external hub, at extra cost.

OK, let’s ignore the hub for a moment and focus on the audio itself, since this is something that irks me to no end. I’ll be honest here, I love audio, I have spent a fair bit of cash on some nice headphones, external DAC and Amp, all for my desktop. However, I absolutely despise the audio industry – the sheer amount of misinformation, slimy marketing and double standards just makes my skin crawl.

Now that all those headphones and audio gear can no longer plug into your mobile, you have to get new gear, and that gear will now cost you more. Why you ask? Because instead of just being a simple cable with a pair of tiny speakers attached, it will all need dedicated DACs and Amps, plus ancillary electronics, built right into the headphones. Now guess which slimy marketing companies are going to be jumping all over that, selling you $1 worth of electronics for $100?

What about those that have already invested in 30+ years worth of audio gear, and like to plug it into their mobiles? All those people will be out of luck unless they fork over for an external DAC and Amp for either Lightning or USB Type-C. That’s an ‘or’ right there, as you’ve lost cross-platform compatibility too. I’m sure a number of cheap external sound cards will surface as they always do, but at the same time, you’ll have the pro audio market flogging off the same gear like gold-plated oxygen-free silver-cored HDMI cables.

While it’s true that consumers will suddenly have full control over their audio, as they are no longer tied down to whatever the phone manufacturer decided to include; unfortunately an abyss of third-party manufacturers will step in to fill the void with mostly cheap crap. All that space manufacturers saved by stripping out the analog path for audio on phones will re-emerge as a daisy-chain of hubs, soundcards and bulky headphones, all of which will cost more, just to keep the same functionality that you had with the last generation of mobiles.

Am I over-reacting? Sure, but at the same time, I just don’t see the point of replacing something that works perfectly, just for the sake of losing 1mm of thickness and 100mm² of PCB space. And since battery power is proportional to the size of the battery, a thinner phone will mean a smaller battery. Please, tell me again Apple and Intel, why is removing the audio jack a good idea?

Disclaimer: This was an opinion piece by the author and does not reflect the views of Techgage and its partners.