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USB Type C to 3.5mm Headphone Jack Adapter

My issue
Hi everyone, I have a Nexus 6P and want to route my audio through a USB type C converter to 3.5mm headphone Jack. I have purchased one online, but it doesn't seem to be working. I have seen that the Moto Z has this adapter and I assumed one I found online would be compatible with my 6P. The reason I want to do this is because I prefer for the AUX jack to come out the bottom of my phone.
What I have tired
Changed 'Select USB Configuration' to all the different options and tried playing music.
Tried 'audio routing' apps from the app store
What I would like to know
Is this because I need to change a setting in my phone to route music out of the USB C?
Do I need to get some kind of DAC to allow support for this?
Has anyone else tried this with their phone?
Thanks
broj0nes

Subscribed. Interested in the solution.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

If you don't mind my asking, why bother?

eregev said:
If you don't mind my asking, why bother?
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Click to collapse
One reason is that to me it makes more sense to put your phone upside down into you pocket. I've always done this at least. So when listening to music I have to put it the other way round. I have also heard the USB C port offers better sound quality.

brotherj0nes said:
One reason is that to me it makes more sense to put your phone upside down into you pocket. I've always done this at least. So when listening to music I have to put it the other way round. I have also heard the USB C port offers better sound quality.
Click to expand...
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Re:sound quality, you'd possibly see a quality increase if you use an external Digital to Analogue Converter or fully usb-c headphones. BUT, if you're using a little dongle (if it's possible), then the phone is still managing the analogue conversion and, thus, a very similar quality of audio output. Now I don't know of the 6p's ability to pipe it straight out iPhone 7 style through a dongle, but short of buying a DAC and going whole-hog on an audio upgrade, I'd just flip your phone the other way in your pocket and go the standard route.
Just my $.02

I have been looking for a solution to this too and I seem to have found one. I poked around on Amazon and I think I finally found adapters that work, here's the link https://goo.gl/QT2ith This the only one with positive reviews so when it comes in on the 30th I'll let all of you know.

sgandy2989 said:
I have been looking for a solution to this too and I seem to have found one. I poked around on Amazon and I think I finally found adapters that work, here's the link https://goo.gl/QT2ith This the only one with positive reviews so when it comes in on the 30th I'll let all of you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looks quite similar to the one that I got. Hopefully it works for you! Let me know how it goes

I read recently that the current implementation of audio over USB-C isn't very efficient or battery friendly. There's a new spec being ratified to provide audio like the iphone can. Hopefully that's a firmware change and not a hardware one.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/17/12519936/intel-usb-type-c-headphone-jack-replacement-idf-2016

I don't think it's possible on the 6P, not without using a USB DAC anyway.
As far as I'm aware, the adapter you have is for a USB 3/3.1 interface. While the 6P has USB-C it is USB 2.

I'm able to get audio out of my USB C port, but it's with a USB headset. Haven't tried it with a 3.5mm headphone adapter, but havd no reason to try it either.

This is weird. Because i have a pair of Sennheiser Urbanites (Wireless edition), and i can use bluetooth, aux, and usb (like for a computer) audio. I once tried to turn off the headsets (bluetooth off, aux and usb still works if connected), and turned off bluetooth on my phone. Then i used my USB type C to USB type A Female adapter (from the google store), and connected the usb-cable from the headsets into the type c adapter. it did output audio through the usb-cable.

Mgrev said:
This is weird. Because i have a pair of Sennheiser Urbanites (Wireless edition), and i can use bluetooth, aux, and usb (like for a computer) audio. I once tried to turn off the headsets (bluetooth off, aux and usb still works if connected), and turned off bluetooth on my phone. Then i used my USB type C to USB type A Female adapter (from the google store), and connected the usb-cable from the headsets into the type c adapter. it did output audio through the usb-cable.
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Bluetooth headphones usually have their own DAC, so the audio for all but the Aux is still being sent through the DAC first, which is supported by older USB standards.
The new USB 3.1 Audio standard can pass through analogue audio from the internal DAC, which is what I believe phones such as the Moto Z utilise. Otherwise the adapter would require it's own DAC, which would make it far larger and more expensive.

Not sure if you will find a good solution at the moment since they just created a standard for audio over usb c http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160927006252/en/USB-IF-Announces-USB-Audio-Device-Class-3.0

Did the amazon converter end up working for you?

My experience so far.
Hi, I ordered some usb c to 3.5mm & out of the box so far they aren't working. I tried Neutron and tried to force the audio to usb but unsuccessfully with phone not recognizing the USB connection.
On the other hand the type C to usb-a adapter worked beautifully using mixplorer. If I get working, will update. Thanks.

is there definitely a dac in the usb c dongle?

can anyone confirm! Is it a dac and amp
thinking of using it for an s8
or is it just a bog standard afapter

The dac is inside the phone itself.

There is definitely an amp in adapter and S8 sounds "better" (subjective opinion).

I can't get it to work
I've attached the dongle and it's not finding anything or playing via usb c
developer mode I've selected audio usb

Hello
The signal coming out from the usb connector is numeric and the sound coming from the earpiece is analogic. So by definition a DAC is mandatory in the dongle, it wouldn't work otherwise.

I even got a firmware upgrade for the dongle yesterday. So yes, definitely has a DAC inside.

How to connect Pixel 2 to Fiio DAC/AMP?

Looks like the bundled male USB-C to female USB-A adapter's intended purpose is to help users transfer their data from old phone to new Pixel.
However, I have a Fiio Q1 Mark II DAC/AMP that has micro USB as input so I used the bundled USB-C to USB-A adapter to connect my Pixel 2 to this DAC but audio still comes out from the phone's speakers.
How can I output the audio through USB-C? In developer options, I select USB Configuration to "Audio Source" but nothing changed. Or I need to use a USB-C to micro USB cable?
To clarify things, here is my configurations: Pixel 2 <-> bundled USB-C to A adapter <-> normal micro USB cable <-> Fiio DAC <-> Headphones (3.5mm jack)
Thanks.

You should be able to use the combined line-in/line-out port instead of the micro-USB, though this would require you to first use the bundled USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. This is problematic if you're not rooted since the Google DAC has terrible distortion, and can only be fixed with root. The setup would be:
Pixel 2 -> Google USB-C to 3.5mm DAC (digital gain <75%) -> 3.5 male to 3.5 male -> Fiio Q1 DAC using 3.5mm line-in -> Headphones
A USB-C to micro-USB cable may work.

Telperion said:
You should be able to use the combined line-in/line-out port instead of the micro-USB, though this would require you to first use the bundled USB-C to 3.5mm adapter. This is problematic if you're not rooted since the Google DAC has terrible distortion, and can only be fixed with root. The setup would be:
Pixel 2 -> Google USB-C to 3.5mm DAC (digital gain <75%) -> 3.5 male to 3.5 male -> Fiio Q1 DAC using 3.5mm line-in -> Headphones
A USB-C to micro-USB cable may work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply.
I have finally made it work. USB-C peripherals must be connected in order. You need to power on the DAC first, connect the micro USB input then connect the USB-C to the Pixel last so the Pixel would recognize the device on the other end.
Another question raised. I have also tried connecting Fiio DAC to iPhone via micro USB to Lightning cable. It worked instantly. iPhone wouldn't let me adjust volume on the phone. Everything was handled by Fiio. Which I think is the correct way to do it since iPhone is just sending digital signal to the DAC and let it do all the work.
But with the Pixel, I'm still able to adjust volume on the phone. I wonder why the phone could do it since it should not do anything with the digital audio signal. I also would like to know how loud should I set the volume at phone and adjust the rest at the AMP.
Also, Pixel's battery is draining fast! Because USB-C supports charging connected devices. I'm not able to disable USB-C power output. The LED light on Fiio indicates that it's charging. The reason that I didn't want to use Google's USB-C to 3.5mm DAC is because the distortion issue. I believe Fiio DAC is much more powerful and audio quality is better.

BlackMiracle said:
Another question raised. I have also tried connecting Fiio DAC to iPhone via micro USB to Lightning cable. It worked instantly. iPhone wouldn't let me adjust volume on the phone. Everything was handled by Fiio. Which I think is the correct way to do it since iPhone is just sending digital signal to the DAC and let it do all the work.
But with the Pixel, I'm still able to adjust volume on the phone. I wonder why the phone could do it since it should not do anything with the digital audio signal. I also would like to know how loud should I set the volume at phone and adjust the rest at the AMP.
The reason that I didn't want to use Google's USB-C to 3.5mm DAC is because the distortion issue. I believe Fiio DAC is much more powerful and audio quality is better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apple I believe uses a line level, the Pixel's is amplified so you can still control it on the phone.
I'd recommend hopping over the the Pixel 2 XL forum, there are technical details that might answer your question. Objective sound measurements.
Regarding the Google DAC, the distortion goes away below about 75% digital gain. In that chained setup, you'd be looking to send as pure a signal as possible with little to no digital gain to the Fiio, which would then cleanly amplify it for playback.

USB-C Charging + Audio cable

So I know that the Pixel XL doesn't suffer from the lack of an audio / headphone jack, but I was curious if anyone has tried to use any USB-C Charging + Audio adapters with their Pixel XL.
My wife has a 2005 FX35 which doesn't have bluetooth in the car, we've tried FM Transmitters in the past and those aren't great. However she has been using a 2.5mm headphone to cassette adapter in her car with her phone which she prefers. So I was thinking maybe there is a way to have her just be able to plug in the USB-C + Audio cable for just 1 cable to plug in vs a USB-C + a separate 2.5mm cable.

That car sounds old enough to be able to replace the CD player without much hassle.

Definitely upgrade the radio. You at least need a AUX input nowadays.

Since I can see you've had such gracious and helpful responses so far, I did some research and it seems that most phones that support USB-C charging+audio adapters don't have aux ports on them. For our phones, most of the adapters won't work unless because the wires usually routed to the aux port are running to the USB-C female port on the phone. While there are some USB-C peripherals that can take audio from our USB-C ports (USB DACs, docks, etc), none of the aux+USB-C adapters I've been able to find online are compatible with our phone and all of them were pretty shoddy.
Unfortunately, I think your wife is going to be stuck using the 2 cord method for a while longer.

My last car was a 2007 Accord without Bluetooth. I purchased a Bluetooth adapter that hooked in to the back of the stock radio. There are similar ones made for the 2003-2008 FX35 if you're willing to spend about $150.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GP5VPT4/
If you're handy with a screwdriver, it's a relatively easy install believe it or not.
It might be worth doing a bit of research because I guess there are different ones depending on if you've got gps or not.
That might be a better long term solution if you're planning on keeping the car for a while longer.

Moto G6 Better (WOW) Sound (found by mistake)

Hi. The audio is okay on the phone. Good with earphones but okay when I use the headphone jack to my car stereo input. Why not bluetooth? Its because direct connect provides the best sound. NOW HEAR THIS. I plugged in my essential phones usb head jack adapter (essential phone has no headphone jack but they do provide a USB C headphone jack dongle) and its like a WOW. I couldn't believe how much the quality of the audio improved. I am talking about tremendous improvement. Like a different phone WOW. Now whether it was due to essential having a dac chip in the dongle (I think it does) I have no clue. I was shocked because normally the question would be why does a dac chip USB C headphone cable work on a phone with a headphone jack? Did Moto decide at the last design phase was to include a built in jack? The dac cables only supposed to work on phone like the essential or the google pixel 2 etc if I am correct.. Well i am da.... sure glad it works on the Moto G6. How you proceed with what you get/prefer to purchase is up to you. I don't know what the end result will be because I truly don't know. The one I have from essential worked miracle wonders. I only suspect it will work with other USB C dongles with a dac chip. Man, i am digging this phones audio improvement. I am like WOW.

Check it out with something like Viper installed and disable Dolby for a little while to see if that also improves the sound. I use an aux cord to play music in my car as well the Viper HiFi Magisk module on top of tweaking some of my head unit settings, and it puts out some of the best sound for music. Can get my old 2004 Carolla to sound like it has a 10-11" sub in it just from the stock stereos and a Pioneer head unit ;p

Not really that big of a surprise, considering that my old Moto E4 would use a pair of USB-A headphones plugged into a OTG adapter. Feel free to call me out, but isn't the USB-C headphone dongle just getting talked to by the phone like a USB sound card?

Most newer (and some older) phones are all capable of USB audio routing. Just take a look in developer options to see some settings.