This is a review and detailed measurements of three adapters to give your Pixel phone an analog output to drive headphones. Taking a lead from Apple, Google eliminated the 3.5 mm headphone jack necessitating using these external dongles/DACs+amps to use with headphones. Rumor is that Samsung may also go that way with their next phone.Anyway, I received the original Google Pixel "USB-C to 3.5mm Adapter" months and months ago from a member. I was dreading having to measure it through my phone as that makes the process slow and incomplete. While I was procrastinating on that a member recently loaned me the second generation of that, prompting me to go and measure them. Fortunately I realized that using a simple USB adapter I could connect them to my PC and hence be able to measure them there. The second generation dongle retails for $12 from Google store. I don't know what the original one retailed for but I see it on Amazon for USD $14 with prime shipping.Meanwhile, someone enticed me to buy the Veclan (or is it Veclan) Electronics dongle. I have no record of a purchase in my inbox but I think it is their "Odyssey" version which retails for $10 from China. Here are the three side by side:As you can see, the two versions of Google dongles look almost identical. The VE version though is fancier with metal connectors, longer cord, a case and a USB adapter like the ones I bought to mate with a PC.Make your guess as to which one you think performs better.I started with the original Pixel dongle. I was happy to see Windows recognize it immediately. Alas, not too happy about seeing the only format supported is 24 bits at 48 kHz sampling:Since just about everything you are likely to play on your phone is from CD rips or streaming at 44.1 kHz sampling, this means your phone would be resampling them all to 48 kHz.Let's see the Dashboard view:This is decent performance but falls short of minimum level performance I like to see (SINAD in high 90s).Let's look at Pixel 2 now and formats it supports:Ah, we now have native 44.1 kHz sampling support! Let's see if that comes with good dashboard measurements:Yuck. We have a massive drop in output voltage to just 0.4 volts. That is going to hurt the power output significantly as we see later.On distortion front, there is enough extra junk to knock it down the SINAD a bit too.Let's look at formats supported by VE:This one gets us coming and going! Same low output voltage as Pixel V2 dongle but now we have taken a serious dump in the distortion and noise department. This is the lowest SINAD I have ever measured on any DAC:As you can see, the Pixel V1 google did as well as my Samsung S8+. None of these dongles come remotely close to LG G7 ThinQ at SINAD of 105.Let's see how they do in jitter and noise department starting with the twin Google Pixel dongles:What a disaster the Google Pixel V2 is. It not only has lower output meaning the noise floor and spikes are actually higher in amplitude on that graph, but it also has a ton of jitter and distortion spikes. The V1 is much better behaved in that regard.Let's bring the VE dongle into the picture now:Again, keep in mind that its output is much lower than Pixel V1 dongle. So in reality, its noise floor (in green) is higher and so are its jitter and distortion products.Clearly no care has been put in the design of either Pixel V2 dongle or VE one.Let's measure power using 300 ohm load:Neither Pixel V2 or VE donglers get even to one milliwatt! The V1 stretches out to 11 milliwatt in contrast. It is gain limited meaning it would have no distortion even at highest levels of playback.Let's go the other extreme and measure power using 33 ohm load:The much more severe load causes clipping in Pixel V1 dongle producing 53 milliwatts of power. But it has some other distortion that rises at around 7 milliwatts.As with 300 ohm load, the V2 and VE dongles produce anemic power of around 4 to 8 milliwatts.At this point I think we have clear enough picture of these devices that I did not run more tests.I did some brief testing of the dongles using my Sennheiser HD-650 headphone. Here, I was surprised that the original Pixel V1 had decent amount of bass with clear response and loud enough for enjoyment. In sharp contrast, the other two dongles would not even reach my normal listening level. Yes, you can hear the music but this is no way to treat the HD-650.This whole business of removing the headphone jack is anti-consumer. No phone is thinner than the 3.5 mm jack allows. I don't like the idea of a dongle as it can get lost, get damaged, etc. If you are going to get one for your Pixel phone (or whatever else it may work with), then my strongest suggestion is to buy the original version before the stock runs out on them. It has far more power, and better performance.The other two dongles, the Google Pixel 2 and Venture/Veclan are what we name "phoned in design." You call a shop in China and ask them to produce a checklist item with no attempt to set quality and performance standard. What you get produces sound but it is a very poor attempt at engineering.I know it is a huge hassle but if you want great sound with audiophile headphones, you need to carry an external DAC+amp.I hope LG continues with their audiophile audio subsystem. If they can do it, others can too sans laziness and not caring to support enthusiasts.-------------As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.If you like this review, please consider donating funds to support these reviews using Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview ), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal ( https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ).