[simpaticoder]

I agree the loss of the 3.5mm jack is a short-sighted and poor decision. There is at least one mitigation, which is the ability to recover the jack through a USB-C DAC. Apple sells them for USD10. I have several, in the car and in my backpack.

It's not a good solution though. In particular I find the USB-C port gets worn out pretty quickly. Its also easy to lose the dongle and of course it's more complicated to setup. (I'm not sure how to articulate the "it's more complicated" part. Adding the dongle elevates the action of "plug in headphones" from something you can do without attention to something that requires attention, and I don't like that.)

[hamburglar]

Also, seemingly without exception, the dongle itself is fragile and ends up causing constant crackling after a while.

[kalleboo]

Can't you just leave a dongle on any wired headphones you have? Assuming you only use them with your phone and computer and don't have a CD player or something.

[makeitdouble]

> Assuming you only use them with your phone

This is really where it hits. Every other device has a proper jack, so the dongle needs to be kept somewhere every other time.

[gopher_space]

Get a set of wired headphones without a built-in cord. Then you can use any USB-C to 3.5 male cord like normal.

[simpaticoder]

You can't use a passive cable for this - there may be a USB-to-audio standard, but it's not widely implemented anymore. You need a DAC.