It&#x27;s recently occurred to me that the prolificness of the 3.5mm audio connector is something to revere. Wikipedia tells that it&#x27;s been around since <i>1964</i>, with its fame really coming with the Walkman in 1979. So, a connector introduced <i>over fifty years ago</i> is still in wide use today. How is that even possible? RJ11 phone jacks I think were introduced around the same time, but they seem archaic and old-fashioned in a way the 3.5mm audio jack doesn&#x27;t. It just astonishes me that the audio connector has been a solved problem for this long, and with all the other advances in tech we&#x27;ve seen.... audio connectors didn&#x27;t need any improvements.<p>It makes me very skeptical of any replacements. If a fifty year old connector has been essentially flawless all this time, it&#x27;s gonna be a tough sell to convince me that something else is really needed now.