Bluetooth is a pretty ropey experience for multi sources - which device am I paired with, how do I change from one to the other, all of that goes away with 3.5mm.

I don't deny there are benefits of bluetooth, but there are benefits from a 3.5mm jack too.

“Bluetooth” in general maybe, but have you used AirPods or any of the Beats headphones with the H1 chip? They are extraordinary.

I'm fortunate that I have my own office so don't need to worry about headphones during the working day - just have multiple speakers. How do these extraordinary headphones cope with sources from a TV, computer, laptop, phone, and test kit, which I want at different levels and outputs?

A £50 mixer takes these inputs (almost all from 3.5mm sources) and brings them all together via a reliable tactile interface.

On the road of course I only tend to have to choose between 2 sources, so perhaps beats can approach the utility of a 3.5mm audio cable.

You do realize that what you are describing is an edge and most users don't have a use case for 5 connections including a "test kit" right?

If a phone would have to cater to all these edge cases we'd still have serial ports on them.

Wired headphones cater for these edge cases.

As I say, I can live with a dongle for 3.5mm or serial (despite it being a regression), it's just another straw.

The certainty and simplicity of an audio jack is not valueless though, no matter how many people on HN say it is.

> The certainty and simplicity of an audio jack is not valueless though

Nobody is saying that audio jacks are valueless in general, just that it's reasonable for a mass market device where it has value for a small % of people to not have it.

and you have to worry about whether your headphones are charged.