The majority of the phones on the market come with a single audio codec IC. The Qualcomm WCD9335 audio codec (in dark blue) on the Galaxy S7 edge. There is a ton of signal processing going on - things such as applying audio effects on your music to noise suppression during phone calls from signal received from multiple microphones, it all happen inside this one little chip. The ADC processes the analog signal received by the mics on the phone. The amp amplifies the analog signal so it's audible through the loudspeaker, earpiece, or your headphones. The DAC processes the sound that exits the phone, including music and phone calls. Every audio that goes in or comes out of your phone passes through this little chip, which is separate from the main SoC and takes up a tiny footprint on your phone's motherboard (about a couple millimeters in either direction). It includes a digital to analog converter (DAC), analog to digital converter (ADC) and an amplifier, among other things. Like your computer, the modern smartphone has something called the audio codec IC, which is responsible for processing all the sounds on your smartphone. Not that it's going to change the course of what companies are planning to do and it certainly won't stop Apple from dropping the headphone jack from the next iPhone, if it so wishes, but as a consumer you should hopefully be more educated and when the time comes would vote with your dollar.īefore we start with the pros and cons of either analog or digital audio output, we should learn a bit about how audio is processed on your phones. Since then other manufacturers have added fuel to the fire, launching models without headphone jacks to preemptively attack the next iPhone and do the tech equivalent of the "First!!!" comment on YouTube.īy now you must have read a dozen thought pieces on how dropping the beloved analog headphone jack is a bad idea, and at the same time others have been writing about how the Lightning port (or USB Type-C on other devices) is the future for all our audio needs.īut before we throw our hat in either of those rings, it's important to assess both of them and see what advantages and disadvantages they offer. Ever since the first rumors that popped up late last year that Apple will be dropping the headphone jack from its next iPhone, the tech world has gone into a tizzy.