Diference between 3.5mm jack power output and USB type c audio output plus are there good type c to 3.5mm audio adatpers for pc?

[Hellriserguy]

Hello


First of all the hardware I am using is a Acer Predator Helios 300. I love loud music. I have a over the ear pair of headphones(more like a gaming headset because of the mic) and earphones with a 3.5mm(Xiaomi i think) plug and Huawei with a usb type c plug that came with my phone.

Usually I use the 3.5mm jack for my audio output but once when I did not have the pairs used in the 3.5mm jack I tried to use my usb type c ones. What i found out is that they were much louder. Given that the usb type c port is much more universal and capable delivering and recieving power(of course this depends on the usb type use specified by the OEM) I thought that If I would plug a usb type c to 3.5mm adapter in the laptop then it might have a better power output then the 3.5mm jack on the laptop.

I ordered a simple adapter. It works on my phone but it does not register when plugging it in my laptop not even mentioning something about increased power. Why is it so that the adapter is capable to work on my phone, but not my on my laptop while the usb type c headphones work on both? Maybe then there are any good over the ear headphones with a usb type c plug? Would really like to understand this.

Hope someone is better informed then me to shed light on the matter.
Thanks

[SnowyMus]

Well, a 3.5 mm jack is analog. That basically means it is outputting the audio signal used to make the drivers in your speakers emit sound.

 

USB is digital. This audio has been encoded into a form that can be transmitted between digital devices without any sort of generational loss. For the audio to be played back, the audio has to be converted into an analog signal.

 

When you use the 3.5 mm jack on your PC, your PC is what is converting digital to analog (likely with an onboard DAC and amplifier). When you use a USB to 3.5 mm adapter, the adapter is what is converting digital to analog. However, the PC has to recognize and use the USB device as an audio output, first, before it can do that.

[mariushm]

The 3.5 jack(s) on your laptops are created by the sound card in your laptop and the sound card has a basic audio amplifier for regular headphones. If you have some high end headphones with high impedance, the audio amplifier inside the laptop has a harder time to drive the speakers in the headphones.

The audio amplifier was intentionally designed to consume less power, because it's a laptop, it's a trade off between draining battery or supporting high impedance headphones.

 

Most USB type c or regular USB to 3.5 stereo are actually sound card chips inside the usb stick, with their own separate audio amplifier. So, if you're using such a device with a laptop, the internal sound card is not used at all, the digital audio signal created by the operating system is sent through the USB connector to the sound card chip on the USB, that chip decodes the digital signal and sends it to its own audio amplifier which then puts the signal on the 3.5 jacks.

Depending on the audio amplifier you may get more power into the headphones, so your headphones will be louder. 

The USB sound cards are not designed to consume as little as power, they have a bigger budget to play with so they'll generally be louder.

 

Now, if you use one with a PC, the internal sound card isn't deactivated automatically, it still works. So sometimes you may have to tell Windows to change from the internal sound card to your USB one. You do that by right clicking on the volume icon in the system tray (the area near the clock) and select Playback Devices and from that list, select your USB sound card.

After this, when you start or restart an application, it will automatically use the USB sound card.

 

You also have other options, you can get proper headphone amplifiers.

They're basically a good  usb sound card  + headphone amplifier inside a separate box.

Here's an example : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LP3AMC2/