Jack, why ?

[Thierrry]

New here, hi all.
My question is very simple.

The jack is known to be the worst audio connector possible. It has been made 150 years ago to carry some very narrow phone signal, 4 or 5 khz.
Now, you can find some amp which work from 10 to 100 kHz (!) and there's still this out of age connector.
So, why should I spend 20 k€ in a headphone, amp, DAC and more for at the end strangling the sound in such a plug ? Perhaps a mini XLR should be more efficient ?
As I could see, only Focal Utopia get some XLR...

Thank you

 

[sergeauckland]

I disagree. The jack is a fine connector. It allows convenient connect and disconnect, without locking, but is held in sufficiently tightly to stand reasonable cable movement. It is reasonably well balanced that it doesn't cause any great reduction in common-mode rejection, it is sufficiently small that connector density on a panel can be high, and it can carry additional poles for microphones or signalling.

All in all, very versatile.

S

 

[amirm]

If we want complain about something, it would be the RCA cable and signaling. 1/4 Jack is worlds ahead in that regard.

 

[Saponetto]

Sad but true...

 

[Sokel]

My only rant about jack vs XLR is that an even bad XLR can't let you down,it will never short,it will never leave something in the chassis if broken,etc.
Not the case with Jacks,it needs to be of high quality to be safe.
If tip/ring start getting loose can very well short stuff as they turn inside.

Neutric has a very nice one that prevents that:

 

[Chrispy]

There are far better things to worry about than a jack/port.

 

[Somafunk]

I only have one complaint and that’s big jacks for iem’s’ - why?,

 

[ZolaIII]

Why not? Take gold one and if that doesn't satisfy you go for Master series or Sinatra.

 

[DLS79]

Why not? Take gold one and if that doesn't satisfy you go for Master series or Sinatra.

I prefer Old No. 7, or Single Barrel Barrel Proof.