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Battle of Google Pixel Headphone Dongles

Biblob

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Yes, that is true. It would require the use of another dongle... Before those manufactures will made them USB-C, I suspect we would have to wait for another year, or maybe more. But maybe, a good dongle is already out there, I don't know.
 

Timbo2

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Problem there again is that they demand that you have a cable attached to them and to the phone. If these small DAC/Amps, like the Dragonfly, had a direct USB Type-C connection, it would have made it considerably more practical. Currently, the SMSL IDEA, or even the the Dragonfly variants, you need an extra adapter/or cable. This difference is of a greater importance to practicality than you think.

What makes the 3.5mm dongles more intuitive (or at least the second best option, after headphone jacks in phones), is that you can just attach them to you IEM/headphone, and have it as a part of that gear's cable. It's like turning your 3.5mm connection into a Type-C connection.

As for the Q1 MKII, it falls withing the category of DAC/Amps that are smartphone-size(ish), and are really just a hassle to go around with your phone with, like the Fiio E17. I know some people don't mind going around with those in public areas, but for me it's simply way too protruding to even consider. That's true for even using it with my laptop, outside of the house; I'd rather use the 3.5mm dongles than extra blocks.

I had the same concerns. The one with the most compact dimensions with the best "marketing" specifications seems to the Razer DAC which ponied up for a THX license.

https://www.amazon.com/Razer-Phone-USB-C-3-5MM-Adapter/dp/B07798HM3H

If @amirm wants to slot it into the review queue I'm happy to buy it, but I know he has lots of other gear.

I decided on the Sabaj DA3 for stationary use with the phone and Bluetooth on the go when I don't care about the best fidelity.
 
D

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Hopefully, more people send 3.5mm dongles to amirm.

Razer's dongle was actually another one I had in my mind, as well. And as with you, I'm more concerned as to whether amirm has the time, or if he wants to make time, for testing these equipment. If he is okay with it however, I'll be more than happy to order another dongle from a new OEM to him as well, as that we can get a proper overview of the best alternatives in this area.
 

Veri

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Would love to see both the Razer and the apple dongle reviewed eventually :)
 
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PuX

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it has already been mentioned, but here's a link in case there will be a part 2 of this review:
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Ph...id=1539609094&sr=1-7&keywords=essential+phone

Essential Phone comes with this adapter, it's pretty high quality in terms of build: no plastic, braided cable. I still haven't listened to it though.

also, I read somewhere that the Apple adapter has surprisingly decent performance. not sure if it's compatible with anything other than iPhones and iPads.
 

Frank Dernie

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I wanted something small for travelling, and because of the high ambient noise levels I expected.
I went for Earin M1 first which worked well considering their tiny size but I did get bluetooth dropouts which were annoying.
Next I tried B&O E8 which are a bit more bulky but have no dropouts and the extra bulk is inside the ear anyway.
I haven't done extensive tests but they certainly allow me to enjoy my music on the bus (parking is impossible in Oxford) and country walks (on the odd occasion I don't prefer the sound of the countryside).
I rarely use headphones other than for travelling and the E8s are certainly good enough for me! No dongle, no wires at all = much better IMO
 
D

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it has already been mentioned, but here's a link in case there will be a part 2 of this review:
https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Ph...id=1539609094&sr=1-7&keywords=essential+phone

Essential Phone comes with this adapter, it's pretty high quality in terms of build: no plastic, braided cable. I still haven't listened to it though.


I have that adapter (along with the phone). Now, there aren't any measurements out there, so you have to just trust my subjective opinion. But doing A/B with the Pixel 3.5mm dongle V1, I find the Pixel adapter to be better. The SQ of the Essential PH-1 adapter is equal the quality of the phone itself; mediocre to poor.
 

Zerohour

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oh, nice to see the VE 3.5mm adapter being measured, since it seems to be getting quite good reviews from users. Pity it measures so poorly on output part, despite being made for high-impedance earbuds

There's the Hidizs Sonata too, if people are looking for alternatives. Quite a bit more expensive but Hidizs are known for their DAPs, so at least it has pedigree.

https://www.hidizs.net/products/dac-cable
 
OP
amirm

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Blumlein 88

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Thanks for this review as I recently acquired a Pixel 2XL. I don't like ditching the phone jack at all, but that is the way it all is going to end up. I'm not a big user of headphones, but looks like acquiring a good bluetooth phone might be in order. I did get the V1 dongle with the Pixel 2XL. I normally use some very lightweight phones with my cell phone. The dongle weighs as much as they do and is of course inconvenient to keep up with.

I intended to measure mine, but you beat me to it. At least I can compare your results to what I obtain for reference.
 

Timbo2

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Thanks for this review as I recently acquired a Pixel 2XL. I don't like ditching the phone jack at all, but that is the way it all is going to end up. I'm not a big user of headphones, but looks like acquiring a good bluetooth phone might be in order. I did get the V1 dongle with the Pixel 2XL. I normally use some very lightweight phones with my cell phone. The dongle weighs as much as they do and is of course inconvenient to keep up with.

I intended to measure mine, but you beat me to it. At least I can compare your results to what I obtain for reference.

On my Essential it is, err, essential to make sure the audio player you use supports the DAC natively. Otherwise it will use use the built in audio driver in Android and it will re-sample everything to 48kHz and 16 bits.
 

stunta

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This whole business of removing the headphone jack is anti-consumer. No phone is thinner than the 3.5 mm jack allows.

I disagree. The industry is pushing users towards wireless headphones. Although no phone is currently thinner than the 3.5mm jack allows, transitioning users towards wireless audio sets them up nicely for the transition when the phones do get thinner. the dongles are for bckward compatibility with the wired headphone users.

When I go to the gym or commute on the subway, I don't see anyone wearing Senn HD650 headphones. Your average user is listening to stock or mass market wireless ear/headphones.

That being said, the fact that you are measuring the dongles is so cool. Didn't expect this at all.
 

mi-fu

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Actually, would headphone jacks limit phone's waterproof ability? Would that be one of the reasons of eliminating phone jacks?
 
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Timbo2

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I disagree. The industry is pushing users towards wireless headphones. Although no phone is currently thinner than the 3.5mm jack allows, transitioning users towards wireless audio sets them up nicely for the transition when the phones do get thinner. the dongles are for bckward compatibility with the wired headphone users.

When I go to the gym or commute on the subway, I don't see anyone wearing Senn HD650 headphones. Your average user is listening to stock or mass market wireless ear/headphones.

That being said, the fact that you are measuring the dongles is so cool. Didn't expect this at all.
In NYC I see lots of full size over the ear headphones. Most are Bluetooth however. I don’t listen on my commute, but others have said interference from all the Bluetooth devices is an issue.

I have both wire and wireless for my Shure 215s. Not worrying about keeping them charged is a big plus for me.
 
D

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I disagree. The industry is pushing users towards wireless headphones. Although no phone is currently thinner than the 3.5mm jack allows, transitioning users towards wireless audio sets them up nicely for the transition when the phones do get thinner. the dongles are for bckward compatibility with the wired headphone users.

Nothing of what you said invalidates amirm's statement. Which is that the decision to remove the jack is anti-consumer. And it is. Using wireless headphones was always an alternative. But with the removal of the jack, we are more or less forced to go wireless (dongles often stop working, and they also are very easy to lose, and are just annoying to deal with, for a lot of people; Apple have already stopped providing dongles in their boxes as well).

As for the argument of thinness, you simply have no leg to stand on. Current phones are around 8mm thick -- in fact, phones got thicker on average after removing the 3.5mm jacks (as it was around the same time bezels got smaller, which for obvious reasons necessitates increased thickness) -- to compare, iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 were substantially thinner than the iPhone Xs and Galaxy S9 today. Furthermore, some of the thinnest smartphones ever made, like Vivo X5Max (5.1mm), come with a headphone jack.

So we are far and away from any realistic, foreseeable future of smartphones becoming so thin that 3.5mm can't fit. As for your reasoning that this is setting up "for the transition when the phones do get thinner", that's just an unconvincing argument. How is it more justified to do that "transition" now, rather than later, when we get to that point (supposing we will ever get to such a point)? Also, wouldn't continuing to sell wireless earbuds, and improving on them and their technology (BT is still a mess in many ways), all the while keeping the 3.5mm jack until users willingly go over, be a more rational transition?

This isn't a question of wireless or wired. It's a question of choice. A very, simple, fundamental principle that anybody can understand. Before they removed the headphone jack, consumers had the choice between BT and wired. Because of huge price increase of BT, the unimpressive battery life (and extra work that comes with charging them), the imperfect technology of BT (connection issues, drop-outs, latency problems, so on and so forth), as well inferior SQ, users stuck by wired. Any rational analysis would tell you that the best way to move users over to wireless would have been to refine and improve the technology in the areas I just mentioned. But OEMs went the other way; by removing the 3.5mm jack and forcing us over. This fact cannot be ignored.

It just beats me how radically pro-corporate some consumers are. They literally accept the explanations given to them by various corporations (in this case the smartphone OEMs) the same way citizens in a totalitarian states does from its state; without critical analysis or thought, and always rationalizing their actions -- even when bad. Which makes sense, seeing as we live in a highly totalitarian culture. And corporations have totalitarian structures as well, internally. There is also no doubt some of the attitudes consumers have of various companies, in particular in the smartphone industry, is similar in this sense (that's where you get descriptions like "Apple sheep").
 
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JJB70

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I think we may be in the slightly odd situation of going round full circle from carrying multiple devices, through carrying a single device that did many things well to going back to multiple devices because manufacturers choose to compromise on the good audio capabilities they were building into smart phones.

Does it matter? That depends. Clearly if you don't use your phone as a Walkman type device then no it doesn't. If you prefer using blue tooth headphones or are lucky enough to have a good dongle then it doesn't matter. However if you do use your phone to listen to a lot of music using good wired headphones then yes it does matter. I'm lucky enough to have a smartphone with a good DAC and a 128GB microSD card loaded up with FLAC files which drives my various headphones to a perfectly acceptable volume to provide an experience which is just as good as the high-res DAP I used to carry around as well and without needing a separate amp. Last week I was away from home all week and listening to good music on my Oppo PM-2s as I was in the hotel room was a huge bonus and it is just a lot simpler to not have to bother with multiple devices.
 

stunta

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We can keep talking about what is best for sound quality. The fact is this is a small minority and smartphone manufacturers won't give rat's ass about any of it. If wired headphones were that important to people, they would have stayed with their models that have it and supply-demand would have taken care of the rest. Hi-fi forums can get so elitist at times - for us sound quality is paramount so the whole world must think like us otherwise they are they are just sheep.

Are you seriously sitting down and actively listening to you music on your phone? There are dedicated devices for that. A smartphone is not meant to be a dedicated hifi device. I find the expectations out of it really weird.
 

ynnhojz86

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Did you find a way to adjust the digital gain as mentioned here?

Quite curious if there's a way to adjust it in Windows and if it affects the spikes as much as the linked post above.
 
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