But if you're the type of person that has one good pair of headphones then attach the adapter to them all the time and just pretend that the port on your phone is a weird shape.

I get that it's not ideal and that adapters are awkward but it seems like it's such a minor inconvenience for your use case. I would expect that audiophiles are used to adapters to go between 2.5mm, 3.5mm, and 1/4" stereo already. What's one more?

I get where you're coming from but the "What's one more?" idea is what led to this whole donglemania. Dongles are conceived of bridges into a brighter future but no thanks I'll happily live in the past for now.

This is exactly what I've done. I have one pair of $250 headphones I've had for years that I use when I want to sit in a dark room and just listen to music. Now the dongle lives on them and there is no inconvenience at all.

I just wanted to say that this is a really great point and, inevitably, the answer from people with these objections is always the same - they just prefer what they already have and are comfortable with. It's such a mild inconvenience that they're already ok with in every other scenario but, for some reason, this time it's completely different. It doesn't make sense.

Im not ok with it in every other scenario, I just swallow it often times because e.g. making a switch away from my MacBook would be prohibitively costly for me and I'll rather endure these "mild inconveniences" (dongle for Cinema Display, USB, Ethernet).

And yes, I really do prefer what I already have (my headphones working without a dongle).

Edit: I'm not even an audiophile btw

So what do you do when you need to plug those headphones into a DAC with a stereo input? You need an adapter. What do you do when you need to plug them into a TV or game system? You need an adapter. You are definitely ok with it in other scenarios, just not this very specific one.

>need to plug those headphones into a DAC with a stereo input

Don't have one.

>need to plug them into a TV or game system

Don't have either.

You're completely right that I need adapters but that doesn't mean I'm ok with getting increasingly more of them. Especially when I get nothing out of them except backwards-compat for hardware that is simply not of the legacy type.

Adapters are easy to forget at home, lose on the go, break, etc. pp. They're detrimental to the user experience and hence should be restricted to support of legacy hardware.

> I spent a good amount of money on decent headphones and if I can't use them with my phone without a dongle that's a no-no. I get that "the future is portless" but the future hasn't arrived yet

What's your criteria for when that future will have arrived?

When there's a decent wireless competitor to the headphones I already have. When there's cheap wireless in-ears on the market.