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Other What do you think will happen to headphones (cable) when usb-c is introduced?

How will apple handle cable connected headphone once usb-c is introduced?

  • change headphone connector from lightning to usb-c

    Votes: 39 73.6%

  • add classic 3,5mm headphone jack back

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • remove cable connected headphones completely

    Votes: 14 26.4%

  • no clue / ill post my idea in the comments

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    53
F

fmpfmp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 16, 2022
19
43
I was wondering what will happen to headphones if apple does actually switch to usb-c.

I find headphones connected over usb-c rather clunky and awkward compared to the tiny lightning connector.
Going back to a 3,5mm jack seems unlikely.
Stop offering cable connected headphones would not surprise me too much...

What do you think?
 
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Apart from using a different adapter, nothing much would change, I assume. The Apple USB-C to headphone adapter that I’m using with my USB-C ipad pro is about the same size as the Apple lightning adapter, so I would assume we’d just use a different adapter? The apple ones are good for the price, in my experience.

As much as I would love it, I can’t see Apple adding back the 3,5mm jack, unfortunately.
 
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svendobbelaere said:
Apart from using a different adapter, nothing much would change, I assume. The Apple USB-C to headphone adapter that I’m using with my USB-C ipad pro is about the same size as the Apple lightning adapter, so I would assume we’d just use a different adapter? The apple ones are good for the price, in my experience.

As much as I would love it, I can’t see Apple adding back the 3,5mm jack, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Which adapter is that?
 
It's a conversation I can't believe we're still having in 2022. Apple were one of the first to push USB-C on us in 2015 on their MacBook, at a time when almost nothing came with a USB-C plug, yet they have resisted fitting the sockets to their phones for so long now that the EU has had to pass legislation to force them. Crazy.
 
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MajorFubar said:
It's a conversation I can't believe we're still having in 2022. Apple were one of the first to push USB-C on us in 2015 on their MacBook, at a time when almost nothing came with a USB-C plug, yet they have resisted fitting the sockets to their phones for so long now that the EU has had to pass legislation to force them. Crazy.
Click to expand...
I feel like Apple dug themselves a hole that they now need to try to get out of as elegantly as possible. It is such a chaos with all their ports.

A few years back I was using a 2014 MBP with an iPhone 6 and everything just worked nicely together.
 
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Jackbequickly said:
I keep hearing rumors that one day the iPhone could go portless!
Click to expand...
With time the price for the cheapest AirPods will drop further and I am pretty sure we will end up with portless devices. (Lets hope they don't fill the new space created by removing the charging port with plastic 😂)

Though I never understood A) wireless charging and I also never understood B) the appeal of AirPods.

A) Wireless charging prevents me from using my phone while charging which can be annoying in some cases (and irrelevant in others).
B) My cable headphones just work. No need to make sure everything is charged. No battery to go empty. When my brother, who uses AirPos sends me voice messages over WhatsApp (while walking outside) I sometimes simply cant understand him because the quality is so ****.

Just my two cents, I understand people who like both those things, but I just feel different.
 
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fmpfmp said:
With time the price for the cheapest AirPods will drop further and I am pretty sure we will end up with portless devices. (Lets hope they don't fill the new space created by removing the charging port with plastic 😂)

Though I never understood A) wireless charging and I also never understood B) the appeal of AirPods.

A) Wireless charging prevents me from using my phone while charging which can be annoying in some cases (and irrelevant in others).
B) My cable headphones just work. No need to make sure everything is charged. No battery to go empty. When my brother, who uses AirPos sends me voice messages over WhatsApp (while walking outside) I sometimes simply cant understand him because the quality is so ****.

Just my two cents, I understand people who like both those things, but I just feel different.
Click to expand...

I have no preference. I use wireless but understand others do not. Apple would have a lot of details to workout if they went port-less.
 
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fmpfmp said:
I find headphones connected over usb-c rather clunky and awkward compared to the tiny lightning connector.
Click to expand...

Size-wise both Lightening & USB-C connectors are quite similar, so Lightening is not quite “tiny”.

367398F5-1310-4CCA-9AAC-4B9D52BD0814.jpeg

I guess Apple will just switch their cabled headphones to USB-C. It will be good for Apple too, as people with other devices/platforms will be able to use them too.
 
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fmpfmp said:
I feel like Apple dug themselves a hole that they now need to try to get out of as elegantly as possible. It is such a chaos with all their ports.

A few years back I was using a 2014 MBP with an iPhone 6 and everything just worked nicely together.
Click to expand...
Agreed. It seemed to me in 2015 they were sending a sign that they were going to have the 'courage' to unify everything, having settled on the USB-C socket to be a common connector shared among all their future products. You would have been able to connect all your peripherals to all your devices, and even devices to devices, (eg iPhone to Mac) with just one type of cable. Great. But no. Instead we've had this ridiculously prolonged s**t-show where they can't decide what sockets they want to use.

Seven years ago virtually no one would have cared if the iPhone had moved to USB-C, but the removal of USB-A and other ports on their laptops in favour of only USB-C caused utter chaos. And now they won't put it on their phones and accessories for love nor money.

It usually makes me cringe when people say "It wouldn't have been like this under Steve", but guess what, on this occasion it really wouldn't.
 
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fmpfmp said:
With time the price for the cheapest AirPods will drop further and I am pretty sure we will end up with portless devices. (Lets hope they don't fill the new space created by removing the charging port with plastic 😂)

Though I never understood A) wireless charging and I also never understood B) the appeal of AirPods.

A) Wireless charging prevents me from using my phone while charging which can be annoying in some cases (and irrelevant in others).
B) My cable headphones just work. No need to make sure everything is charged. No battery to go empty. When my brother, who uses AirPos sends me voice messages over WhatsApp (while walking outside) I sometimes simply cant understand him because the quality is so ****.

Just my two cents, I understand people who like both those things, but I just feel different.
Click to expand...
A) If you have a MagSafe device (even a MagSafe case on a non-MagSafe device) and charger, you can charge and use the phone at the same time since it attaches to the device magnetically.

B) I prefer wired headphones as well. When it comes to wireless I suppose there can be a convenience factor argument since you don’t have to worry about a wire getting in the way or damaged, but besides that, wired is much more convenient to me for the reasons you stated.
 
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fmpfmp said:
I was wondering what will happen to headphones if apple does actually switch to usb-c.

I find headphones connected over usb-c rather clunky and awkward compared to the tiny lightning connector.
Going back to a 3,5mm jack seems unlikely.
Stop offering cable connected headphones would not surprise me too much...

What do you think?
Click to expand...
I'll just keep using my Shokz/Aftershokz Aeropex until I replace them with the newer (better) Shokz model. These are BT bone conduction headsets. I hate things that clamp to my head (headphones) and things that go in my ear (earbuds/pods) and bone conduction still allows me to hear around me because my ears are not covered.

I'm not an audiophile, bluetooth sound is just fine for me. Easy to use and it means I can put my phone down and walk around.
 
fmpfmp said:
With time the price for the cheapest AirPods will drop further and I am pretty sure we will end up with portless devices. (Lets hope they don't fill the new space created by removing the charging port with plastic 😂)

Though I never understood A) wireless charging and I also never understood B) the appeal of AirPods.

A) Wireless charging prevents me from using my phone while charging which can be annoying in some cases (and irrelevant in others).
B) My cable headphones just work. No need to make sure everything is charged. No battery to go empty. When my brother, who uses AirPos sends me voice messages over WhatsApp (while walking outside) I sometimes simply cant understand him because the quality is so ****.

Just my two cents, I understand people who like both those things, but I just feel different.
Click to expand...

So...wait...you do realize your two preferences conflict with one another, right? You can't listen to your wired headphones and charge at the same time.

As for me (and probably an enormous amount of others), wireless charging and AirPods is kind of the ultimate day-to-day setup for work. I rest my phone on a standup charger, and I listed through AirPods, giving me the freedom to move around or stand up without yanking the phone off my desk. Plus the AirPods switch over to my (dare I say it) Windows laptop for MS Teams calls pretty flawlessly.

All that being said, there have been a couple of times, before my older AirPods died, that I found myself having an emergency need for wired EarPods because the wireless ones suddenly wouldn't hold a charge. Losing the ability to do that would be painful.
 
erinsarah said:
So...wait...you do realize your two preferences conflict with one another, right? You can't listen to your wired headphones and charge at the same time.
Click to expand...
True, in the case of charging and listening to music at the same time they contradict and AirPods would solve that issue.

Thats why in another response I wrote:
fmpfmp said:
A few years back I was using a 2014 MBP with an iPhone 6 and everything just worked nicely together.
Click to expand...
I remember sitting on a train, having no sockets around me: I would charge my iPhone using my MBP over USB2.0 (plug it in, open the MBP and close it again and it continues charging even after you put it back in the bag) and then listen to music at the same time over 3.5mm.

It had the USB2.0 Socket all the way in the back on the right side so you could even put the MBP back into its case and just have the cable stick out on one corner. Used the MBP so many times as a charging station.

Simpler times... 😂

And regarding your arguments for the AirPods: I get what you are saying, I probably would not mind them as much if i ever got to try them for a day or two. So fair enough! :)
 
svendobbelaere said:
Apart from using a different adapter, nothing much would change, I assume. The Apple USB-C to headphone adapter that I’m using with my USB-C ipad pro is about the same size as the Apple lightning adapter, so I would assume we’d just use a different adapter? The apple ones are good for the price, in my experience.

As much as I would love it, I can’t see Apple adding back the 3,5mm jack, unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Yea if it would have asked what do you want them do, I would have voted bring back the jack, Jack
 
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