Why has Android never had USB audio output like iOS?

CorrectHorseBattery

CorrectHorseBattery

CorrectHorseBattery

Mobster
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2012
Posts
13,348
iOS devices (and iPods before then), have always been much better than Android devices in terms of compatibility with car stereos, docks, etc. Plug in your iPhone to nearly any stereo with USB and you can browse the library on the stereo screen, all audio is output, etc.

Android doesn't have this and never has: the closest you can get is Bluetooth. It's only with Android Auto that it's slowly catching up. My question is why?
 
I've rarely had any compatibility issues with devices that conform to the USB Audio standards with any of my Sony or Samsung Android devices - can't speak for other brands.

EDIT: Ah talking about slightly different things - taking control of devices via the phone rather than using a/the screen on the device to play media from the phone. You can change the USB mode on an Android device and browse it on many devices as if it was USB storage though and play music from it that way.
 
Begbie said:
Which doesn't do the above.
Click to expand...
I am perhaps missing the point.
The audio jack is superior when you can have cable connection and Bluetooth is when you don't. Why bother with usb? There is a reason why top audio gear is optical/audio jack/hdmi/Bluetooth and not USB.

I like my sound and have owned many top end speakers and earphones/headphones and never in my life i thought "I wished my audio gear had better USB connectivity with android"...

IPhones are also better at having lower res and lower quality screens but it's not exactly a good thing is it?

Nobody uses USB for audio. Well, apart from iPod and iPhone owners who think their £200 sound dock actually has a good sound.
 
PhoenixUK said:
I am perhaps missing the point.
The audio jack is superior when you can have cable connection and Bluetooth is when you don't. Why bother with usb? There is a reason why top audio gear is optical/audio jack/hdmi/Bluetooth and not USB.

I like my sound and have owned many top end speakers and earphones/headphones and never in my life i thought "I wished my audio gear had better USB connectivity with android"...

IPhones are also better at having lower res and lower quality screens but it's not exactly a good thing is it?

Nobody uses USB for audio. Well, apart from iPod and iPhone owners who think their £200 sound dock actually has a good sound.
Click to expand...

You can't control the audio from your headunit via audiojack can you?
 
PhoenixUK said:
I am perhaps missing the point.
The audio jack is superior when you can have cable connection and Bluetooth is when you don't. Why bother with usb? There is a reason why top audio gear is optical/audio jack/hdmi/Bluetooth and not USB.

I like my sound and have owned many top end speakers and earphones/headphones and never in my life i thought "I wished my audio gear had better USB connectivity with android"...

IPhones are also better at having lower res and lower quality screens but it's not exactly a good thing is it?

Nobody uses USB for audio. Well, apart from iPod and iPhone owners who think their £200 sound dock actually has a good sound.
Click to expand...
Except anybody with a USB Dac? :confused:
 
PhoenixUK said:
I am perhaps missing the point.
The audio jack is superior when you can have cable connection and Bluetooth is when you don't. Why bother with usb? There is a reason why top audio gear is optical/audio jack/hdmi/Bluetooth and not USB.

I like my sound and have owned many top end speakers and earphones/headphones and never in my life i thought "I wished my audio gear had better USB connectivity with android"...

IPhones are also better at having lower res and lower quality screens but it's not exactly a good thing is it?

Nobody uses USB for audio. Well, apart from iPod and iPhone owners who think their £200 sound dock actually has a good sound.
Click to expand...

I don't like apple devices, but USB audio is a good thing. Apparently it's very accurate, with low jitters, l2s or something like that, plus your amp can control the device. So if you plug your iphone/ipod to your car, then you can use the car's streering wheel controls to control the apple device, also info on the LCD screen is shown.

If you use android device then you have nothing, the car stereo is a dumb device.
 
I'm going to be contentious and say the TRS jack is ass and should have been ditched decades ago, so 1,000,000 points to Apple for leading the way. It's mechanically dubious (anything plugged into it acts as a lever so can cause damage if pulled, there's a small chance of creating a short when you plug it in, and there can be capacitance problems), and unless you have fancy impedance matching going on in the amplifier there's going to be a huge range in sound quality/volume depending on which headphones are plugged into what. (Not to mention that there's no agreed standard for the TRRS and TRRRS variants, even from a single manufacturer -- the PS Vita earphone/mic wiring is different from the PS4 controller. It's lunacy!)
 
TRS is only mechanically dubious if cheaply made or used by an ape :p The potential for causing shorts is a huge design flaw - but if you design your audio equipment properly it shouldn't be an issue - i.e. there are op amps that can sustain an output short indefinitely. Impedance issues are always going to potentially happen around the digital to analog conversion point there isn't really a way around that - a well designed amp doesn't need impedance matching to sound good over a large range of devices though - with modern components even a fairly simple amp can handle 8-300ohms without issue if designed properly.

What bothers me the most is the shared ground return actually - I really notice the difference now since building myself an amp with balanced output.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom