Ludicrous. "Audiophiles" that buy $800 headphones obviously love listening to MP3-compressed music...
There's one reason that tip and sleeve connectors are inferior to other connections: static caused by rotation when their cables are moved. RCA plugs don't suffer that, but they didn't fit well on portable devices. On a convenience device for mobile listening, the 3.5mm setup makes perfect sense. Its ubiquitous and inexpensive. There's no justification for adding a proprietary connector and DAC just for portable listening. There's no benefit to consumers here. Only shareholders see benefit to this in jacking up adapter sales and licensing of the propriety connector.
When Apple has 1 terabyte storage and lossless files are standard on these devices, only then will $800 headphones not be an utter ludicrous waste. Actually, no, $800 headphones will always be ludicrous. Even in the studio.
There's one reason that tip and sleeve connectors are inferior to other connections: static caused by rotation when their cables are moved. RCA plugs don't suffer that, but they didn't fit well on portable devices. On a convenience device for mobile listening, the 3.5mm setup makes perfect sense. Its ubiquitous and inexpensive. There's no justification for adding a proprietary connector and DAC just for portable listening. There's no benefit to consumers here. Only shareholders see benefit to this in jacking up adapter sales and licensing of the propriety connector.
When Apple has 1 terabyte storage and lossless files are standard on these devices, only then will $800 headphones not be an utter ludicrous waste. Actually, no, $800 headphones will always be ludicrous. Even in the studio.