The Moondrop MIAD 01 is one of the most distinctive Android devices of 2024 thus far. It has a 4.4mm headphone jack to go with the more conventional 3.5mm type. Furthermore, it seems it might be as appealing to teardown enthusiasts as well as audiophiles, and may, therefore, also be easier to repair than most modern smartphones.
    • iopq@lemmy.world
      10·
      6 months ago

      Yes, but it’s basically placebo if your headphone cable is of a normal length

      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
        10·
        6 months ago

        I wouldn’t say placebo. It’s definitely doing something. I would say it’s unnecessary in most environments, and probably definitely on a mobile phone. But to lift right out of the article:

        You may be wondering if balanced audio is “higher quality” than unbalanced — the answer is no. Balanced cabling doesn’t provide a better quality of sound than unbalanced cables. Audio source and the quality of materials in the actual cable’s construction determine sound quality more than anything. However, balanced audio does a better job of eliminating noise, should it exist in your signal. In a case where extraneous noise is present, balanced audio will be clearer than unbalanced audio.

        • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneEnglish
          6·
          6 months ago

          I wouldn’t say placebo. It’s definitely doing something.

          I would say this is still a placebo. Placebos always still do something. A sugar pill tastes sweet and modifies the sugar levels in your blood. The important questions are validity and effectiveness, not whether or not it does something.

          Balanced audio will not eliminate noise in most of the circumstances where a headphone user hears noise. There are far more likely sources (the source file itself, DAC limitations, audio amp limitations, external sound from their environment, etc). It will help in some very specific circumstances, but that’s like trying to sell snow chains to all car owners on the planet because you can claim that they improve traction.

          If you do work in an environment where changing to balanced headphone signalling helps… why are you working with your head inside an RF hazard zone?

          (From page): However, balanced audio does a better job of eliminating noise, should it exist in your signal. In a case where extraneous noise is present

          Misleading.

          Noise exists in all signals. Balanced audio only “does a better job” in circumstances other than what this product is being sold for. Discussing this at all gives it false merit anyway.

          EDIT: Giving this some further thought: balanced and unbalanced signalling is mostly moot when you’re an isolated device with one cable attached. From an RF standpoint you’re not forming both halves of an antenna (dipole or monopole+ground). Electrically they both look extremely similar in this scenario. Your partially conductive human arms waving around will probably couple to RF noise better than the headphone cable.

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            Ah. Yes. I see your original meaning. I misunderstood what you had meant.

            Balanced will reduce noise (in terms of RF noise, of course) significantly better than unbalanced, but the source of noise does need to be far enough away from the capturing device to not affect it directly and, therefore, be able to be negated by the balanced cable. However, the end user (listening to balanced vs unbalanced signal on a mobile phone) won’t be experiencing a difference between the two (IE placebo affect).

            Thanks for clarifying!

            • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              Balanced will reduce noise (in terms of RF noise, of course) significantly better than unbalanced,

              In this situation I don’t think it will at all.

              I don’t think that balanced vs unbalanced is actually electromagnetically that different in this particular configuration (see my edit at the end of above). Things like where the wire is sitting on your body and what pose you are in will probably affect RF noise pickup levels on the headphone wires much more than changing between bal & unbal signalling.

              but the source of noise does need to be far enough away from the capturing device to not affect it directly and, therefore, be able to be negated by the balanced cable.

              I didn’t get into near-field and far-field effects. I’m not sure that it really matters here, but I might be wrong.

              • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
                1·
                6 months ago

                I was going off the few pages I read, including the one I linked. I’m far from an expert in this realm, so, really, I don’t have any substantial argument for or against what either of us are saying. However, filmography, and the related foley artistry, has always intrigued, and I have learned from experience the differences between using a standard jack and an XLR, and I can say that the sound is vastly cleaner with XLR (at least on a set). The secondary jack on this phone seems to be to XLR what USB-microB is to USB-A (again, going off what I’ve read). You do make a lot of sense, though, in your posts, so I may be flat wrong here haha

                • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneEnglish
                  2·
                  6 months ago

                  learned from experience the differences between using a standard jack and an XLR, and I can say that the sound is vastly cleaner with XLR (at least on a set).

                  Your experiences were correct, don’t doubt them. That would have been ground-referenced equipment, ie plugged into wires that eventually join a wall. RF interference would interact with that quite differently, unbal vs bal would be quite different.

    • Thteven@lemmy.world
      2·
      6 months ago

      The practical reason people use balanced jacks is because they push more power which allows you to use headphones with lower sensitivity. I have a few pairs myself that would benefit from this, they have relatively low ohm ratings so the high impedance setting on my V60 doesn’t get triggered when I plug them in and they are very quiet.