Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 19 submissions in the queue.

Bring Back the Headphone Jack: Why USB-C Audio Still Doesn't Work

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday September 12 2018, @04:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the they-can't-hear-you dept.

canopic jug writes:

PC World has an article on why USB-C has not been a viable alternative for the 3.5mm audio jack. Problems with USB-C include variable handling of digital to audio conversion, incompatible SOCs inside the cable, and non-standard analog-passthrough. In short, the cables which contain computers themselves are not standardized in behavior and the author's conclusion is that mobile devices must have 3.5mm jacks until the USB-C cable technology gets sorted out enough that they become usable.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Bring Back the Headphone Jack: Why USB-C Audio Still Doesn't Work | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 65 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday September 12 2018, @07:35PM (4 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday September 12 2018, @07:35PM (#733799)

    Certainly you can do various things to reduce cross-talk, but if you're delivering enough power to drive a headphone speaker, you're going to be delivering a notable amount of power to any other receiver in close proximity as well, including the other channels.

    A much easier (and cheaper) route would be to just use a magnetic connector to deliver direct physical contact, and make sure your contact pads are well bonded to the insulating substrate so that water can't get in. After all, you don't really care if the contacts get wet, you just need to make sure the water doesn't penetrate your device.

    Or, if you *really* want to go contactless, use a single induction pad to deliver power, modulated to deliver a digital signal as well, and then decode the signal into multi-channel audio fed through a DAC to get your analog speaker-driving signal.

    Basically, once you go analog crosstalk becomes an issue - and it's made far worse through wireless broadcasting. You can still achieve any desired level of isolation, but the cost of doing so increases rapidly.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:19AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:19AM (#733961)

    I got a degree in electrical engineering.
    You don't know what you are talking about.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Immerman on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:57AM (2 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:57AM (#733980)

      So do I. Care to elaborate?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @05:46PM (#734349)

        This forum is not the place for a very technical back and forth.
        I will just say that I suspect you do not work in the audio industry as a design engineer.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @05:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 13 2018, @05:52PM (#734355)

          Hey Immerman,
          I got your response mixed up with the guy you were responding to because your posts were long and you paraphrased the guy you were responding to a lot in your reply.
          I apologize.