Firstly, even though you have an expensive and high-end pair of headphones, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will get the best sound quality from them especially when you use it with your smartphone. This is because most smartphones aren’t built with Digital-to-Analog Converters (DAC) or high-end audio chipsets, there are a few such as the Razer Phone 2, Samsung GALAXY S10 Plus and LG V50 ThinQ. So even with an expensive or high-end pair of headphones, your device may not have the power to drive the headphones, so your audio quality will be compromised.

Secondly, it boils down to the source of your audio file and for most consumers, it’s either streaming via Spotify or MP3s stored on their devices, both are digital, which means they are compressed and thus have lost fidelity and quality. So unless you’re relying on FLAC files, which most consumers won’t bother using due to various reasons (file size, conversions, etc), you really won’t be getting the best experience out of your expensive pair of headphones.

Thirdly, there are many USB-C to 3.5mm dongles that actually help to enhance the audio produced by headphones, for example, the Razer Phone 2’s dongle that enables Dolby Atmos or third-party ones that actually have a DAC or higher-end audio chip built-in. Yes, the signal is digital but this goes back to my second point, your source/files are digital, so even if you used the 3.5mm headphone jack, you’re still not getting the BEST audio quality.

Finally, as for clarification to my intro in the review, I didn’t say you SHOULD buy a pair of wireless headphones but at the rate things are going, more and more smartphone manufacturers are removing them especially from their flagship devices so there’s really no point complaining about the gradual disappearance of the 3.5mm headphone jack and the alternatives are really the USB-C to 3.5mm dongle or wireless earphones. They may not be the best alternatives.

Your argument is invalid. Just because I can afford to buy good wireless headphones it doesn’t mean I should. Some people have already invested on good 3.5mm headphones. And good luck getting the same sound quality on those “good” wireless headphones. Do you know how expensive they would be to be on par with
the really good wired ones? You also do not seem to know the difference between 3.5mm audio and USB-C audio where one is analog and the other one digital, making it look like using a USB-C to 3.5mm converter cable will give me the same sound quality.