GADGET GURU
Q EMILY, WARWICK
Why do people care about headphone jacks so much?
A It’s not about wired headphones, reader. It really isn’t. An eagle-eared listener may be able to tell the difference between Bluetooth and hard-line, but they must then contend with the constant rubbing of cable on clothes, the ever-present fear of snagging and having one’s buds inelegantly yanked from one’s lugs, the glaring fact that dangling wires are, in 2021, dorky as all hell. Besides, a USB-C DAC is going to output a finer signal than any headphone jack, if that’s what you’re really interested in. It’s not about wired headphones: it’s about choice.
Whenever a feature gets taken away, particularly if it relates
