Small USB-C splitter/dongle for headphones and power?
 

Are there any good small solutions for being able to charge a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack while allowing one to plug in a standard set of 3.5mm headphones? All of the dongles I've seen are about the size of a matchbook or just provide two USB-C ports.

I looked around at a few as well for my iPhone 7 (although there are other phones that have the same concern these days). One thing to be really careful of is many have the 3.5" jack and the type c port but don't allow for the microphone. As an example

https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-iPhone-...kAAOSw~HBaKmwT

(I don't know this one but its an example). You'll notice they never mention phone calls - because its ends up being audio only. I gave up and went wireless.

Does your phone support audio-passthru on usb-c or not?

if not, then the dongle has to have a DAC (converts digital signal to analog sound, along with the necessary logic board to split the usb c port)

That's something I didn't even know to check but apparently the Pixel 2 only does digital pass-through, not analog.

So apparently I will have to hope my Pixel XL lasts for several more years until this entire technology is better developed and I can find a reasonable way to have charging and a corded headset without turning the phone into a mess of wires.

Come on, solution provided by the industry is obvious

You're right, the solution is obvious -- don't buy phones which lack 3.5mm jacks.

There's no provision in the USB specs for analog audio, so any device which does this either has an outboard DAC (which will use more power than something built-in) or some kludge/hack of the USB standard. I'm with you -- Bluetooth headphones, at least from a travel perspective, suck. Now it's an extra device I need to worry about charging and sound quality's not the best.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10719...specifications

usb type c has standard for passive/analog passthru?



I do have to charge two devices (phone with 3.5mm plug + Bose QC20), but the benefits(NC) are worth it.

If QC20 runs out of battery, it still works as a passive earbud (with lower quality). I can charge and use the NC at the same time

@paperwastage: I stand corrected! The last time I looked at the USB-C spec there was no mention of audio and the focus was on power delivery. Interesting.

Looks like the phone manufacturers need to look at that page too (since very few phones implement passivre/analog type c )