Break the Headphone Jack On Your Laptop?
Get an Inexpensive USB-to-Audio Dongle.

Last week I did something stupid — I left my headphones plugged into my laptop when I headed off to the office, breaking off the headphone jack in my less then two year old laptop. I found an inexpensive, plug-and-play alternative that works just a well as a headphone jack.

An USB-to-Audio dongle plugs into any USB port or hub and provides an analog headphone jack audio out. It’s a fairly tiny device with a male USB connector on one side and a headphone jack on the others. iPhone users often use a similar device to connect analog headphones to their phones.

The dongles are under $10 on Ebay and Amazon and can often be found on AliExpress direct from China for less then $5. The sound quality on the one I bought was basically the same as the laptop. The dongles works well, because USB-to-Audio standard is part of the USB standard and most software automatically supports it just like a conventional headphone jack.