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Apple Introduces Lightning Cable MFi Specifications for Headphones
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Just seems like an iterative use of the lightning port. Proprietary ports are something most consumer tech companies would try to avoid imo. I think Apple will gain some traction with this though. There are enough Apple diehards who will buy just because of this
Just having some fun since Apple is always looking to make things smaller/thinner.
They didn't mind making people get rid of their 32-pin connectors to get new lighting connectors and they trashed the optical drives in almost all of their computers to make it thinner. I wouldn't hold them above getting rid of the audio jack for the same reasons, though they'll offer an adapter for $15 probably.
Although for you, that sucks. I've never been able to use the standard Apple headphones. I have my Bose in-ear buds and I'll never go back, so they better have a solution for me to keep on using them.
- Optical doesn't supply power.
- It would require fitting more components into the iPhone.
- The headphone jack is basically the thickest component in a smartphone these days. If manufacturers want to continue making their devices even thinner, then they're going to have to do something about it.
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Tell me about it. I bought a Bluetooth adapter for my car's aux in jack late last year. I know it's not totally digital since it still has a 3.5 in, but I can hear a huge audio difference when using it. Problem is it has crapped out and disconnects after various times. Today it was five seconds.
So killing analog audio jacks would rock. I prefer using Bluetooth wireless, but I also like not spending as much on headphones.
I don't use my headphones while charging, but I certainly have my iPhone plugged into my car stereo using the headphone jack while charging on a regular basis.Be honest, how many of us, on a regular basis, actually use headphones while charging an iDevice? That being said, I hope
Also, where's the DAC supposed to go now, inside the headphones? No thanks.
1-That would mean they would have to put an optical/3.5mm port on iPhones/iPads/etc.
2-A fibre optic cable isn't something you want flexing around like a headphone cable!
You can't charge your iphone at the same time as listen to headphones? Hope this is good and not a disadvantage
You're jumping to a conclusion without seeing the opportunity. What about Y-Cables where there's two lightening connectors on one end of the cable? Or what if the lightening cable from the headphones went to a dock that the iPhone was sitting in. Although that would be dangerous, get up and walk away, pulling the dock and phone off the table while you do. Haha
There's more than one.
48KHz output capability is hardly significant over a 44.1KHz/16bit lossless FLAC, ALAC, etc. It doesn't specify bitrate in the article of course, but if they are going to market 'high definition' audio, that might be 48KHz/24bit. (My guess is the HD downloads to be offered will eventually be 96/24). Even so, that type of lossless audio is going to be hard to discern - especially so with a set of mediocre headphones. The claim that 48KHz will 'vastly' improve audio is nonsense, and you can easily compare some 16bit/44.1KHz and even 24bit/48KHz from the same master and tell me if you can hear the difference. Have someone arrange an ABX test for you. It's difficult, borderline impossible, even for those claiming to have golden ears.
The success of the Pono kickstarter, and the various comments about how awesome music will be after they start selling you 96KHz/24bit tracks at $17.99+ an album is showing the industry that people want it whether or not they can hear it. I have yet to see the advantage over a FLAC pulled from a $3 EBay CD and the 96/24 offerings I've been able to listen to, and I do listen on some decent quality gear.
The only confusion for people there might be the fact that the 96/24 source material through online purchases is typically remastered content - so it should and does sound different than original releases, but not different than say the 44.1/16 CD layer of current Audio Fidelity CDs (remastered in each case - which is the point of these releases).
Headphones (with an onboard DAC) will need to be powered or the onboard DAC will need to pull power from the phone, *definitely* not something I'm interested in since the iPhone 5 rarely gets me through a day if I am using apps or listening to music. Powering an outboard DAC through the lightning cable will just make battery life go down (probably a small amount, but we don't even need that).
Now, an outboard hi end stereo shelf component with a strong DAC connecting to the phone via lightning and receiving digital has potential, as you'd have a strong DAC you can use for various consumer digital inputs (coax, optical, HDMI) and the iPhone would just be another input format. But I understand that the Yamaha Aventage (shelf component) and some smaller devices (HRT iStreamer) already do this. In fact, I'm going to go see what different file formats show up as on a Yamaha streaming digital to their internal DAC as far as bitrate now - I'm curious if it's capped at 44.1KHz/16bit.
Edit: The Yamaha Aventage receivers already allow you to use a outboard DAC with a USB/Lightning cable, but they don't show the bitrate for this option. I'm sure it's at whatever rate you are allowed to put files on the phone. If I remember correctly, you can have 96/24 files in your iTunes but IOS had a lower limit (IOS capped at 48/24 I believe)
Aventage USB Digital In by danox574, on Flickr
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Just seems like an iterative use of the lightning port. Proprietary ports are something most consumer tech companies would try to avoid imo. I think Apple will gain some traction with this though. There are enough Apple diehards who will buy just because of this
Lightening is Intel Apple is just one of the companies using it.
No, that's Thunderbolt. They're two completely different connectors.
However, it is possible that Apple could eventually push the Lightning Connector as an industry standard. They've done it before. (eg. MiniDP)
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Haven't used my headphone jack for ages, to the point I covered up my headphone jack. Eliminating the extra hole in the case plus the space inside makes all sorts of sense. Frankly, using wired headphones is so old school in an age where Apple is pushing wireless, it's just a matter of time before wired headsets go away altogether.
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Welcome to the future, where you have to buy new headphones if you switch to Android
Well they could make it so that it is hot swappable with a standard 3.5mm jack on the headphone side...
Yep. HRT iStreamer worked the day the iPhone 5 was released. This MFi spec sounds like it really just adds some additional capabilities-- the audio output isn't anything too crazy, IMO.