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by dep_b 3051 days ago
The great thing about a headphone port is that if you stick something in it you won't ever hear anything over the speaker. A bluetooth headset might not be connected (anymore) and you won't notice until it starts blaring. I use it a lot when debugging applications that have sound and drive me nuts if I have to listen to the sound all day long. Apart from that I don't really miss it on newer phones but my SE remains my go-to testing phone just because things like that (also you need to dogfood the UX on smaller phones in my opinion).

Aside I have een looking into nice headphone amps for iPhones and that market seems really small. It seems that audiophiles would skip the built in DAC yes or yes if audio quality would really matter?
4 comments
taoistextremist 3051 days ago
>The great thing about a headphone port is that if you stick something in it you won't ever hear anything over the speaker.

This still kind of depends on good software. On the Galaxy S5 (which I've managed to get along with still), the built-in voicemail app will play over the speakers despite having headphones in. Led to some embarrassing moments the few times I've listened to voicemail in public.

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tzs 3051 days ago
> The great thing about a headphone port is that if you stick something in it you won't ever hear anything over the speaker.

iMac does that, and I find it very annoying. I normally use headphones, but occasionally want to use the speakers. To do that I have to reach behind the iMac and unplug the headphones. This is annoying because there are things in the way on my desk.

I cannot understand why Apple did this. They got it right on my older Mac Pro: you could select in the Sound settings between the headphone jack and line out (which was were you generally would connect your speakers).

Am I missing something here? Making an analog audio signal electronically switchable between two paths is not something that requires an EE genius to design.

If for some reason they cannot do that...how about putting the headphone jack in front instead of on the back? Put it in the middle of the black Apple symbol on the front if you are worried it will throw off the aesthetics. It would be hard to see there.

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jdc0589 3051 days ago
> Aside I have een looking into nice headphone amps for iPhones and that market seems really small. It seems that audiophiles would skip the built in DAC yes or yes if audio quality would really matter?

The market it there, but like you said it is very boutique and specific. Step 1: be an audiophile, step 2: have good portable headphones where a good dac/amp will actually make a difference, step 3: user your phone as an audio source enough to care, step 4: be willing to spend a bunch of money on it.

I fall in to the audiophile category, have very nice custom IEMs (64 Audio, being upgraded + remolded from v6-s to a6 right now actually), and would be willing to spend money. However, I almost NEVER use my phone as an audio source, so I just don't care enough to invest in a portable dac/amp setup.

Hence the limited availability.

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bsder 3051 days ago
> Aside I have een looking into nice headphone amps for iPhones and that market seems really small. It seems that audiophiles would skip the built in DAC yes or yes if audio quality would really matter?

https://www.jdslabs.com/products/35/objective2-headphone-amp...

This is a design created by NwAvGuy (who has since gone AWOL) because all the headphone amp manufacturers pissed him off with all the hooey.

It's got a Creative Commons license and the design is actually public.

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dep_b 3051 days ago
That looks great and it’s relatively affordable. I’ll dig into it.
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