What Does AUX Mean
What does AUX mean? AUX is the abbreviation of Auxiliary port. It is literally just an additional audio input method. It is an asynchronous serial port whose interface allows an auxiliary input audio signal. Continue to read this post from MiniTool to get more details.
It allows a PC or other device to send or receive data one bit at a time. AUX ports are typically used for audio devices that receive peripheral sound sources, such as digital music players or audio speakers. Peripheral sound devices are connected to the AUX port or other medium, such as the vehicle’s audio jack. Auxiliary ports are also known as auxiliary jacks or auxiliary input.
What Is AUX Used for?
Recently, auxiliary ports and auxiliary jacks have become important for the widespread distribution of digital music through home or car speakers or directly from devices. Therefore, auxiliary jacks and their corresponding ports are very useful to users.
This is especially true in the smartphone world, where a single auxiliary jack provides many different uses, such as watching movies or TV shows with high-quality audio directly through the headset, playing music through the headset, and participating in conference calls through the headset. Headphones, etc.
If you plug your speakers, microphone, or headphones into your main device, with the possible exception of some types of USB setups, you’re usually connecting through what’s called an aux port.
In a word, AUX can be used for:
- MP3 player
- Earphone
- Portable Music Player
- Amplifier
- Speaker
Advantges and Disadvantges of AUX
The main benefit of auxiliary inputs is that they can be used with basically any audio device. Whether you have an iPhone, Android phone, or a decades-old Walkman, you can use auxiliary input as long as your device supports it.
That’s why an aux cable can be used with just about any portable device, although some require an adapter.
The main disadvantage of using an auxiliary input is the difference between a car stereo and earbuds. Earbuds are small and powerless, while even the simplest car stereos have larger speakers and amplifiers, either powerful standalone amplifiers or built into the head unit.
The problem is that when you use an auxiliary cable with a portable music player like the iPhone, the phone hardware has to do all the heavy lifting. iPhone processes the digital music files you store on it and transmits the resulting audio signal to the aux input in the head unit via the headphone jack.
Since the iPhone is designed with earbuds and headphones in mind, and they don’t include a line-level output, additional noise can be introduced into the audio signal as it passes through the amplifier in the car stereo. Of course, noise can also be introduced through auxiliary cables and jacks.
The primary type of aux input is a 3.5mm jack, which is the same type of Tip Ring Sleeve (TRS) or Tip Ring Sleeve TRRS connectors you see on headphones. So when you see “auxiliary input” listed as a host function, it means it’s a jack that you can connect directly to the headphone jack on your phone or any other audio source cable via a male-to-male 3.5mm TRRS cable.
Final Words
What does AUX mean? What is AUX used for? What are the advantages and disadvantages of AUX? I believe that you have found the answers.