2 Years After Apple Killed the Headphone Jack, USB-C Audio Is a Disaster
Two years ago, Apple yanked the headphone jack off its mobile devices
and called itself courageous. The Kool-Aid theory was that by getting
rid of this ancient analog port, we’d all be free to pay for new devices
that offered the same functionality over a different connector or to
buy Apple’s new AirPods. Oh — and supposedly it would simplify and
streamline the consumer experience by removing capabilities no one
wanted to get rid of in favor of a less-effective solution with a
dongle. The dongle is very important. Where Apple went, the Android
market has followed — and the current state of USB-C audio in the
Android ecosystem is a disaster.
A recent article in PCWorld makes clear just how bad an idea this
fundamentally was. Despite the fact that USB-C audio should be
well-established and working flawlessly by now, instead, it’s made
things much worse. And the problem goes back to what may well be a
fundamental flaw in the USB-C standard — it’s too complicated. In
attempting to carve out myriad use cases, cable support levels, and
feature sets, the USB Implementer’s Forum (USB-IF) may have built a
standard that consumers will never be able to actually rely on to
function as a standard.
One of the most fundamental assumptions we make about standards is that
cables and devices that conform to them will operate when plugged into
compatible hardware. While it’s true that there are exceptions to this
rule, you don’t have to generally worry about whether your HDMI or
DisplayPort cable will support certain resolutions or features unless
you’re working with much older cables. You can typically assume that a
micro USB cable is a micro USB cable and that a USB device will work in a
USB port. The situation with USB-C audio is far more fraught, thanks to
the difference between dongles that include a digital-to-analog
converter and those that do not. The first type are digital, the second
are analog. Ung writes:
The first problem is lack of basic compatibility. For example, if
you take the USB-C dongle that came with a Motorola Z2 Force or Sony
Xperia XZ2, it won’t work with a Google Pixel 2 XL, Samsung Galaxy S8,
or OnePlus 6. The USB-C dongle that comes with the Pixel 2 XL though,
will work across all of those phones, as does the USB-C headset that
Huawei includes with its P20 Pro. But take the USB-C dongle that’s also
in the box with the Huawei P20 Pro and try it on your partner’s Pixel 2
XL, and it’s a no-go.
LibraTone
It gets even stranger. As Ung points out, the Libratone Q ADAPT
headphones will work for music with a wide range of devices, but only
supports phone calls when paired with the Pixel and Pixel 2. Google
sells a USB-C dongle with a DAC in it and the Pixel 2 XL ships with one —
but if you try to plug an analog USB-C dongle (no DAC) into a Pixel 2
XL, the device won’t play audio even though the phone SoC contains an
integrated DAC. Why not? Because Google didn’t enable the feature.
Hilariously, on some phones, you have to turn USB storage on to get the
digital USB-C dongle to work properly. There’s no explanation for why
this is.
The restrictions are device-specific and aren’t always
well-communicated. The Razer Phone, for example, simply won’t push audio
through an analog dongle and doesn’t bother telling you why you aren’t
getting any sound.
But the long and short of it is this: The experiment hasn’t worked. If
you own a device with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the end of it, you can
almost certainly count on audio coming out when you make the proper
connection. With USB-C audio, the entire situation is a complicated
mess. Third-party support and utility is on a device-specific basis,
which is exactly the opposite of what a standard is supposed to deliver.
Companies like Apple will never see this is a negative, because its
solution is for you to buy more branded hardware at whatever price point
it sees fit to charge. But for everyone else, this foray into the brave
new world of USB-C audio solutions comes at a usability cost.
It’s time to do something courageous and bring back the headphone jack.
Apple may never take this step, but the Android manufacturers should.
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