Do any sound cards have support for 4-contact/pin 3.5mm jacks?

[gergy008]

I was thinking today about how phones, tablets etc. all support 4-pin/contact audio jacks, through the headphone port, and Apple computers and some OEM laptops also support it but I've yet to find a desktop PC that supports 4-pin audio jacks. I was thinking about posting a thread in the cases section asking to see how many people actually use 4-pin consumer headphones, and maybe to eventually convince case manufacturers to implement this in the front panel of cases. However, I'm not sure how the entire thing works a desktop. I know that Cirrus audio chipsets have support for 4-pin, because it's the controllers Apple use in their devices.

 

If you're not sure what I mean with the 4-pin audio jacks- I'm talking about headphones/earphones with in-line microphones and a 3.5mm TRRS jack. They utilise the sleeve on the jack to provide information from the microphone and buttons to the device.

 

My question is, do any other sound cards, whether it's built into the motherboard or not, support the TRRS jack to provide input and output in the same jack? I'm not sure if the limitation is in the controllers themselves, or it's because of the design of the socket and cable that runs up the front panel audio on the case.

 

Anyway, sometimes I like to use my iPhone Sennheiser headset on my PC, pretty much because they're the best headphones I have on my budget. It would be nice to convince the right people to implement this, albeit 5 years later than say, Apple, without having to find, buy and fiddle around with those silly adapters.

 

Thanks for your input!

[brownninja97]

I think it would be a lot better in your case to get a dac, hell in any case get a dac.

[NannerBeans]

I was thinking today about how phones, tablets etc. all support 4-pin/contact audio jacks, through the headphone port, and Apple computers and some OEM laptops also support it but I've yet to find a desktop PC that supports 4-pin audio jacks. I was thinking about posting a thread in the cases section asking to see how many people actually use 4-pin consumer headphones, and maybe to eventually convince case manufacturers to implement this in the front panel of cases. However, I'm not sure how the entire thing works a desktop. I know that Cirrus audio chipsets have support for 4-pin, because it's the controllers Apple use in their devices.

 

If you're not sure what I mean with the 4-pin audio jacks- I'm talking about headphones/earphones with in-line microphones and a 3.5mm TRRS jack. They utilise the sleeve on the jack to provide information from the microphone and buttons to the device.

 

My question is, do any other sound cards, whether it's built into the motherboard or not, support the TRRS jack to provide input and output in the same jack? I'm not sure if the limitation is in the controllers themselves, or it's because of the design of the socket and cable that runs up the front panel audio on the case.

 

Anyway, sometimes I like to use my iPhone Sennheiser headset on my PC, pretty much because they're the best headphones I have on my budget. It would be nice to convince the right people to implement this, albeit 5 years later than say, Apple, without having to find, buy and fiddle around with those silly adapters.

 

Thanks for your input!

 

I have not seen any sound card, internal or external, support 4 pole plugs. I think it's more of a niche market because most people will use either a dedicated mic or their headset will have a separate mic plug. It would anger more people than not if you take away the mic socket. Now if you kept the mic socket and have a 4 pole for the headphone plug, that would be fine but it's additional cost that not many people will take advantage of. 

 

 

I think it would be a lot better in your case to get a dac, hell in any case get a dac.

 

Uh. First, he wasn't asking for which dac to get. Second, most times getting dacs offer no improvement. 

[brownninja97]

I have not seen any sound card, internal or external, support 4 pole plugs. I think it's more of a niche market because most people will use either a dedicated mic or their headset will have a separate mic plug. It would anger more people than not if you take away the mic socket. Now if you kept the mic socket and have a 4 pole for the headphone plug, that would be fine but it's additional cost that not many people will take advantage of. 

 

 

 

Uh. First, he wasn't asking for which dac to get. Second, most times getting dacs offer no improvement. 

Im on edge about both of them in fact, ive only ever had a dac(a bad one) and i had a discussion with the mayflower guy  about dacs vs cards and he said dacs are better at everything, im not sure at all.

[NannerBeans]

Im on edge about both of them in fact, ive only ever had a dac(a bad one) and i had a discussion with the mayflower guy  about dacs vs cards and he said dacs are better at everything, im not sure at all.

 

Yes external dacs and amps are an improvement from sound cards but most of the time it will not be an improvement from your onboard and you are just wasting your money. 

[gergy008]

Im on edge about both of them in fact, ive only ever had a dac(a bad one) and i had a discussion with the mayflower guy  about dacs vs cards and he said dacs are better at everything, im not sure at all.

 

I'm going to assume you mean get a dedicated DAC because the Cirrus Logic is the DAC that Apple are big fans of they use in everything hahaha

Bit out of my budget, for casual use I mean, a lot of people have 4-pole jacks that they can't use the mics on, like the ones that come with phones out the box. Casual users will just use them for everything.

I actually feel like many people would benefit from this, maybe not you guys but everyone else

[NannerBeans]

I'm going to assume you mean get a dedicated DAC because the Cirrus Logic is the DAC that Apple are big fans of they use in everything hahaha

Bit out of my budget, for casual use I mean, a lot of people have 4-pole jacks that they can't use the mics on, like the ones that come with phones out the box. Casual users will just use them for everything.

I actually feel like many people would benefit from this, maybe not you guys but everyone else

 

Yeah I think that would be the problem. Most enthusiasts won't be interested in something like that because they have dedicated headphones/mics and that is the market that this hardware is targeted towards.