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Buying Headphones in 2018 is Going To Be a Fragmented Mess (theverge.com)
Vlad Savov, writing for The Verge: At CES this year, I saw the future of headphones, and it was messy. Where we once had the solid reliability of a 3.5mm analog connector working with any jack shaped to receive it, there's now a divergence of digital alternatives -- Lightning or USB-C, depending on your choice of jack-less phone -- and a bunch of wireless codecs and standards to keep track of. Oh, and Sony's working hard on promoting a new 4.4mm Pentaconn connector as the next wired standard for dedicated audio lovers. It's all with the intent of making things better, but before we get to the better place, we're going to spend an uncomfortable few months (or longer) in a fragmented market where you'll have to do diligent research to make sure your next pair of headphones works with all the devices you already own.
Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of headphones in this country. We made the headphones to own.
Then the other guy came out with a three-connector headphone. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Turbo Headphones.. That's three connectors and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happenedâ"the bastards went to four connectors. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three connectors and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five connectors.