USB-C is getting standardized everywhere now

3.5 mm has been a standard from the motherfisting 1950s

1. USB headphones require new drivers constantly.
2. USB headphones are likely to use proprietary apps for basic features like noise cancellation.
3. Audio jacks use significantly less power/processing compared to USB.
4. Audio jacks do not hog usb bus lanes, which may or may not be an issue for mobile, but on PC it is.
5. USB headphones are in general significantly lower quality, because studio equipment uses 3.5mm or other standard jacks (XLR for microphones for example) as they cause the lowest interference.
6. USB introduces overhead latency which is a no-go for production use.

Because all USB C to 3.5mm Aux adapters are flimsy as mother fuckers that break down after two months use. I would not even care otherwise, I never charge and listen at same time anyway.

If anyone has suggestions for adapter that is not made out of thinnest possible wire and is durable, let me know.

Also, I don’t want to buy USB-C headphones, since I would only use those with my phone, I want to use them also on other devices, and for compatibility it is better to have it analog instead of USB-C. If I were to buy headphones for phone only, I would just get wireless.

I often have use cases at work where I have to plug in my headphones to device I am not familiar with, for audio troubleshooting at our customers device. Most of the times USB is not an option, only standard analog audio.

Modern laptops also come with way too few USB ports, 2.0 and C combined, so I rather not waste one for audio since there is no reason for audio to go through USB. On my main PC I don’t use my internal soundcard but external audio interface for music production, and I want my headphones connected to that, not USB.

So in conclusion, USB-C headphones would be totally worthless to me, no matter the device. Even for phone, I rather go with adapter, or just wireless ones.

Because it needs an extra dongle that isn’t free and most headphones use an ordinary audio jack.

Charging while listening.

And above all, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

The fact that there is more than one “standard” for USB-C audio is enough to hate it.

Analog 3.5mm just works with everything. No dongles, no drivers, no “unsupported device”, no batteries.

It. Just. Works.

Downsides of usb-c headphones:

1. Bluetooth security risk surface, exposes your phone to more attacks. (Nobody has mentioned this yet)

2. Most/all phones have a single usb-c port. Charging and using headphones difficult

3. Usb-c port placement is awkwardly on bottom of phone while must headphone jacks are on top of the phone. Plugging in your headphones on the bottom of the phone with a dongle is awkward.

4. The entire process of using a usb-c dongle or using Bluetooth headphones makes the entire system more complicated. KISS (keep it simple). The more complexity there is that can go wrong, the worse the experience. If I’m taking a important conference call, I want my audio to just work.

Not directly related: the whole point of removing the headphone jack was to sell airpods. First apple, then android, and even fair phone. Each time the jack is removed to push sales of the branded Bluetooth ear buds. It’s a user hostile move.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/apple-airpods-success

The excuse may be to save money, Space, water rating, but the reason is increased sales.

I personally still use a pixel 5A which had a headphone jack only because it’s the B tier phone for markets where people are less likely to also buy the airpods.

Let’s invert the question: what makes it worth the switch? If I’m going to change something, you have to prove why it’s worth, not me proving why I shouldn’t.

There’s no reason to switch.

50 year old headphones are still basically fine except for the port changing.

I have multiple dozens of headphones that have a normal headphone plug.

I can charge my phone while I listen to headphones without carrying multiple adapters.

We can maybe talk once we get more than 1 USB c connector on a phone. Maybe.

It requires extra hardware to get the same functionality I’d have by having a traditional jack.

Also the excuses these companies make up for removing it are always silly. No, the phone isn’t too thin to have one* – that’s always marketing BS. It’s always, always, always to save the pennies it costs to add a headphone jack. Those pennies of course add up during manufacturing.

They can save costs in that way because some people don’t care. It makes a simple headphone jack seem like a nothing feature, and the narrative can be pushed that those who want it are simply latching on to the past. Something similar happens with the arguments for and against physical buttons vs. touch screens, especially in cars.

*there is a YouTube video (I believe by Strange Parts) where they add a headphone jack to an iPhone which Apple had explicitly claimed was too thin to have one.

Because I can’t charge my phone and use the headphones at the same time. Only 1 USB-C port on my phone.

I need a special adapter to charge my phone simultaneously

Also, I can’t connect it without an adapter to my car, my headphones or my home cinema stereo

When companies began to drop the audio jack I was annoyed, but I figured I could just buy a converter. Which would be great if there were a universal standard for connecting audio through a USB C. There isn’t. There aren’t even just two competing approaches. There are all kinds of different setups that sometimes vary even within a single brand.

I found multiple adapter that said it supported my phone brand. It didn’t work. I looked deeper and found some advice on adapters that would work with more recent phone. I bought one based on that and it worked, sort of. The audio quality was not great and it would occasionally just cut out for a second. My third try got me an adapter that work reliably, but the audio quality is still mediocre. My best headphones are all analog, but I have to use Bluetooth with my phone because it provides better audio.

The physical issues, particularly the connectors, guarantees that USB C will never work as well. The lack of standards for implementing it make finding compatible hardware a nightmare. And if you manage to get everything else figured out you end up with the kind of sound you can hear from an audio jack using a $5 set of earbuds. It provides no benefits to the user, only to the manufacturer.

I fucking hate the whiny answer of “but my/most existing headphones had an aux so I don’t like USB-C.”

The biggest factor for me is that it simply makes it impossible to charge your phone and use wired headphones at the same time without a special splitter adaptor… Which itself is impossible to roll up with your headphones.

It’s designed to be such an inconvenience to the point that you’re actually just incentivized to buy wireless headphones. And since it was Apple, that of course meant their very expensive Airpods.

That said, I happily use wireless Bose headphones now anyway, but I did have to ditch my audio technicas for that reason.

Because it sucks and the 3.5mm jack is better. Manufacturers should be forced to include it or pay a punitive fee calculated to far outweigh the savings of not including the jack, perhaps $5,000 per individual unit manufactured.