@Nayana Mihiranga I would think so. A USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter would have to include an audio chipset since USB-C ports don't support carrying raw audio, so unless that adapter is designed to be used only with some device that has a proprietary USB-C connector that would carry raw audio, I would expect that adapter to work with any headphones/speakers you want to use. The only potential exception would be headsets that have stereo audio and a microphone combined onto a single connector. The reason there is that there are two standards for headset wiring, namely OMTP and CTIA. They differ in the placement of the mic vs. electrical ground pin, so if you connect an OMTP headset to a CTIA connector or vice versa, you will find that your mic doesn't work and you might also head weird feedback due to the electrical ground connector being mismatched. But with regular stereo audio output and no mic, there shouldn't be an issue at all.
@Nayana Mihiranga That adapter specifically confirms that it has a DAC (digital to analog conversion chip), so while I haven’t used that adapter myself, I would fully expect it to work with your system.
The new Dell XPS laptop has no 3.5mm jack port. Instead it has a USB-C to 3.5mm converter dongle.
Is this good enough for the high impedance (300+ ohms) headphones which I am thinking of buying, or would I need digital-analogue-converter (DAC) and amplifer units?
jphughan
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Posted July 18th, 2021 08:00
@Nayana Mihiranga I would think so. A USB-C to 3.5 mm adapter would have to include an audio chipset since USB-C ports don't support carrying raw audio, so unless that adapter is designed to be used only with some device that has a proprietary USB-C connector that would carry raw audio, I would expect that adapter to work with any headphones/speakers you want to use. The only potential exception would be headsets that have stereo audio and a microphone combined onto a single connector. The reason there is that there are two standards for headset wiring, namely OMTP and CTIA. They differ in the placement of the mic vs. electrical ground pin, so if you connect an OMTP headset to a CTIA connector or vice versa, you will find that your mic doesn't work and you might also head weird feedback due to the electrical ground connector being mismatched. But with regular stereo audio output and no mic, there shouldn't be an issue at all.