USB audio will always be better in pricing options, but the question is, which will give you better sound for the price. Of course, this only matters if you think audio quality is more important than price.
Please re-read my response. I never said that USB would always constrain the audio quality, but if you get a cheap USB to aux converter, the quality would be lacking vs a more expensive solution.
I generally hate the “just get dongles lol” argument but… maybe it’s not a huge loss in this one specific case. I’ve had four models over 3 generations (B, 2-something and 3) and the audio jack always kinda… sucked.
I remember when i wanted to make something like a chromecast audio with volumio and spotify connect on my Pi 2. I had to buy an audio DAC (~30€) because I could not get the 3.5 Jack to work correctly. It just sounded bad when cranked up to a volume you could actually hear something. You almost couldn’t understand lyrics in songs due to the static noise. I read that this was due to being badly shielded from the power source.
The Audio jack on the Pi 3 I have is ok, but still not that good compared to the Audio DAC of course. But then again, the audio DAC i bought for 30€ was said to be on par with 1000€ standalone audio interfaces lol.
It was some hacked-together sound output that was terrible quality compared to a real sound card output, AFAIK. You could make it make sounds, but if you care at all about quality it was a non-starter, which is one reason a whole lot of audio hats exist.
It’s a shame that even the Pi Foundation is cutting corners. Cutting corners and removing features all while not even coming close to their target $35 price. Almost double for the base model. This doesn’t feel like it fits the spirit of the original Pi Foundation goals at all.
Even the Pi has lost its headphone jack…
I mean, if you have USB, for a non-mobile platform, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not hard to get a USB audio interface.
For cell phones or laptops, I can understand not wanting another thing to plug in, but for something like a Raspberry Pi…shrugs
And you can just get an audio dac hat.
Hmm. Yeah, though I have to say that the USB route looks cheaper.
https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-audio-hats
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb+audio+adapter
USB audio will always be better in pricing options, but the question is, which will give you better sound for the price. Of course, this only matters if you think audio quality is more important than price.
Why would you expect USB to constrain your audio quality?
You’re not getting better 0s or 1s based on which bus they’re sent over to the DAC.
Please re-read my response. I never said that USB would always constrain the audio quality, but if you get a cheap USB to aux converter, the quality would be lacking vs a more expensive solution.
I generally hate the “just get dongles lol” argument but… maybe it’s not a huge loss in this one specific case. I’ve had four models over 3 generations (B, 2-something and 3) and the audio jack always kinda… sucked.
How do you mean, what sucked about it?
I remember when i wanted to make something like a chromecast audio with volumio and spotify connect on my Pi 2. I had to buy an audio DAC (~30€) because I could not get the 3.5 Jack to work correctly. It just sounded bad when cranked up to a volume you could actually hear something. You almost couldn’t understand lyrics in songs due to the static noise. I read that this was due to being badly shielded from the power source.
The Audio jack on the Pi 3 I have is ok, but still not that good compared to the Audio DAC of course. But then again, the audio DAC i bought for 30€ was said to be on par with 1000€ standalone audio interfaces lol.
It was some hacked-together sound output that was terrible quality compared to a real sound card output, AFAIK. You could make it make sounds, but if you care at all about quality it was a non-starter, which is one reason a whole lot of audio hats exist.
Connectors seemed low quality and so did the audio. Crackling and sounding… sort of like a broken toy for kids.
The sound quality sucks.
To be fair, the pi’s have always been famous for low quality sound cards, so there’s plenty of hats that can add the functionality.
There’s just not enough room
/s
It’s a shame that even the Pi Foundation is cutting corners. Cutting corners and removing features all while not even coming close to their target $35 price. Almost double for the base model. This doesn’t feel like it fits the spirit of the original Pi Foundation goals at all.
Very cool they’ve added an interface to connect a peripheral that can have one though.