Headphone history

     The headphone jack has been around almost as long as the telephone, and it was originally used for switches.

     At the time, users needed to easily set up and disconnect audio signals, and the telephone jack was born.

     Most of it is a quarter inch diameter, that is, 6.35mm, mainly used for medium and large audio equipment, is the earliest predecessor of the headphone port.

     Later, because this type of interface is widely used, various sizes of interfaces are also derived accordingly, such as the mini 2.5mm headphone port, which was used in some old mobile phones and can now be seen in the "national brick".

     However, having more interfaces is not a good thing.

     In the 1980s and 1990s, there were a lot of headphone ports on the market.

     At that time, in order to defend their right to speak in the industry, major manufacturers adopted their own interface design, which was incompatible with each other. This also causes a lot of trouble for accessory manufacturers.

     Over time, users and manufacturers can not stand this incompatible status quo, manufacturers aimed at the industry's two major players launched products. One is the SONY walkman, the walkman used in the movie Star-Lord. One was the iPod that saved Apple.

     These two epoch-making products use an interface scheme that happens to be the 3.5mm headphone jack

     Therefore, with this influence, other manufacturers have also used 3.5mm, and the problem of non-universal headphones has been solved, and it is still in use today.

     However, the 3.5mm headphone port can also be more differentiated. First of all, 3.5mm belongs to TRS terminal, TRS is a general scientific name, it will be divided into TS, TRS, TRRS and so on according to the number of sections.

     Our common 3.5mm headphone ports are TRS and TRRS. The former has only left and right channels, while the latter supports microphone function because it has an extra contact.

     However, this extra microphone has divided TRRS into three major factions, and has also brought certain troubles to users, such as although the same 3.5mm headphone port, it may not be universal on all models such as Apple, Android, and Symbian.

     Still, the success of the 3.5mm is not in dispute. It has been popular on mobile phones for a long time because of its wide compatibility, durability, and easy access.

Then came the plunge.

     Since Apple launched AirPods, wireless headphones have reached an unprecedented prosperity, although Apple is not the first to do wireless headphones, but it is the first to do the street visible.

     And more and more Android true wireless headphones are also popping up like "mushrooming".

Wireless age

     Although many people will blame Apple for this, Apple is not the first "executioner" to take a knife to the headphone jack.

     In fact, as early as the era of feature phones, SONY Ericsson and Nokia have begun to try to use data interfaces to connect headphones. (such as the Walkman W810)

     In the era of smartphones, the first Android phone launched by T-Mobile and HTC in 2008, the HTC G1, does not support 3.5mm headphone jack, and can only use miniUSB. This kind of connection can be said to be the grandfather of smart phones, although it is not easy to use.

     In fact, as early as the era of functional machines, these giants began to worry about eliminating 3.5mm headphone ports. But is the design of the headphone jack necessarily correct? At least in the following 5 aspects, TWS headphones are really not as good as 3.5mm headphones.