Removal of headphone jack

Well, this has been sitting in my publishing queue for a while, and then someone wrote pretty much same thing themselves. Figures... But I've been a bit lazy lately, so I'll just publish this anyway now.

Lately there's been a lot of rumors about how manufacturers are looking to remove the good old 3,5mm headphone jack. I think one rumor about Apple was just that, a rumor, although I am absolutely certain that they are very, very seriously thinking about that, but now Intel proposed the same too.

It is true that the physical dimensions of this jack limit the thickness of the device to minimum of about 5mm, or 4mm if you are really pushing it. The thing there however is that the size, the bulk, of the connector allows it to take some abuse. How many 3,5mm connectors have you heard of that were pulled off the PCB? And how many USB connectors? Yeah, I thought so. So they want to move one more function to already fragile USB connector. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea.

But no, manufacturers want to go digital, with optional (and soon-to-be-removed) analog path as stop-gap measure. Hell no, I definitely don't want that!
 
When outside I like to use cheapest possible earbud-type headphones I can find. Lately that has meant about 10€ ones from any local store every six moths or so when previous pair breaks or wears out. Reasons are pretty much same every time; flimsy wires get bent and break at connector, or the earbud itself or the rubber wears out and doesn't stay in anymore. As I pretty much listen to only audiobooks there is no reason to pay for supreme audio quality, and so far more expensive earbuds have been equally short-lived. And no, while I appreciate bigger, over-the-ear headphones at home, I don't want to use them outside.

Now, adding active DAC and amplifier to headphones? I predict that the price of more affordable headphones will jump by (at least) 100%, with my suspicions about cheap DAC/amplifier combination's sound quality. And I expect that certain brands would be ecstatic to strictly enforce "brand name accessories only" policy. No more cheap headphones for you, better cough up 95€ for those simple, plain white ones!

One could claim that you could use an adapter module, but that is simply adding one more fragile thing to the chain. And the connectors already are the weakest link with current headphones - adding two more connectors will certainly will only mean one more thing constantly breaking.

Bluetooth headphones are nice, but they, too, are fairly expensive. Cheapest analog headphone around here is (like I already said) around 10€. Cheapest Bluetooth ones are about 40€. That's some hefty premium to pay every time again when old ones break! Or I could buy some directly from China, but there you'll never know what you get.

The bluetooth receiver I've been using has been nice, and it definitely takes one physical stress out from the phone end (which is very good when moving a lot). But this, like the dedicated BT headphones, have very limited battery life - I'd hate to have to charge them after every single use. My phone can go from four to five days between recharges, so thought of recharging damn headphones every four to five hours isn't exactly tempting.

But hey, since we are talking about dropping ubiquitous 3,5mm plug, how about a bit different analog one, say 1,5mm? That would sacrifice some of the connector sturdiness, and cause compatibility issues (yay for another adapter until you get new headphones), but at least it would be thinner, analog and still cheap.

But, alas, I fear that we the people are at the mercy of the corporations. They have spoken, and they want to sell us more fragile and more expensive things. So enjoy your current analog headphones now - while you still can...