The headphone jack has been a hot topic in the last couple years, and I, like many, were quite perturbed when my new iPhone 7 had no headphone jack. Sure, I had some Bluetooth headphones, but I had those iconic white ear buds in every bag, nook, and cranny around. Of course, no matter how hard I tried, they always ended up in a tangled mess that often took more effort to untangle than was ever worth.
Perhaps my biggest point of contention with the headphone jack was my car, literally one model year before USB was pretty much standard, I still had the Aux Input, and since the CD player had died in my life so far before, I had a nifty phone holder that made use of the CD slot in the dash, keeping the iPhone at the perfect location for maps and safe access when necessary. Now I had to get a new concoction of dongles so that I could both charge and hear the output of my phone, as buying a new car isn’t in my near future.
Fast forward to the iPhone X and AirPods, and I had completely forgotten about wired headphones. The AirPods switch seamlessly (well, most of the time) between my phone, iPad, AppleTV, MacPro, and MacBook. They sound great to me, are possibly useful during teleconference meetings on GoToMeeting, Zoom, or the like, and I LOVE using one ear at a time so I can keep an ear open to the world around me and not having a dangling earbud bouncing around.
Well, today I sit down to get more familiar with my new Audio-Technica ATR2100 microphone, which I love so far, and I had to find the time machine to go back and find a wired set of headphones to plug into the mic to use as a monitoring option. I wanted to try the wired option in contrast with using the AirPods as a monitor, so the wired headphones will most likely not be a final decision, but seeing that tangled clump of wires made me once again appreciate the insistence of Apple to loose something tried and true for something possibly better.
I will acknowledge that yes, there are many cases where a wired connection is more optimal and preferred, especially around more pro recording needs, and that I am squarely in the “mass market” category with this
Now, while I still have to have extra bits in my car to make it work, it’s something that I can handle with relative ease and since it stays in the car and ends up being a single connection to the phone, it’s not a terribly inconvenient option until I get something with CarPlay.