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This is a great. Now we just need an iPhone that can store a decent sized music library. 64GB is nowhere near enough for lossless audio.

This.

Exactly what I was about to post. I had a 60GB iPod a decade ago, and it's just mind-blowing that with all the advances in flash technology that 64GB is the best Apple can offer.

Oh, but we don't need storage because it's all in the cloud now right? :rolleyes:
 
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.

I believe the article is about third party manufacturers making their own Lightning headphones... so Bose can if they choose to.

Surprised no one has brought up just how fragile the lightning cable is. In a headphone application? I imagine I'd get a few weeks regular use before it shorted out. Sounds like a terrible idea to me.

I imagine it's just going to specify the DAC and Lightning part, from the tip to the ear would be based on whatever the manufacturer wanted. LED lights, nylon braiding, we'll see it all.
 
Lossless 48 kHz digital output is a huge deal -- with the right headphones and source material, it will *vastly* affect audio quality. Bravo, Apple.

Except NO ONE except for TV composers record at 48k (which I do.) All bands record at the standard 44.1 rate (which I do) so all anyone will do is have the bit rate bumped up...which does NOT improve sound quality. The bit rate does matter. CDs are 16 bit...most of us record at 24 bit and let the mastering people take it to 16.
 
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)
[url=https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2903/14155531128_c996e175fb_m.jpg]Image[/url]Aventage USB Digital In by danox574, on Flickr

Thank you for making sense, thank you so much.
 
If Apple drops the 3.5mm headphone adapter in favor of this lightning option, then honestly I don't care how technically superior it will be - I will drop the iPhone in a heartbeat and switch. I have no intention of buying headphones that I can only use on one company's device.

You mean besides the 2000 bluetooth headphones that are currently available on the market?

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Yawn. Apple is behind the times again. Music is played out. Apple really needs to shift its focus to the medium of the 21st century, video.

Video killed the radio star.
 
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)

You're right. I was thinking thunderbolt.
 
I made a thread about this very topic in the iPhone section.
Basically this is great, and had much wider implications for the computer industry as a whole.
So why would a cable with lightning connector on both sides exist. I doubt it would be iPhone and iPad to headphone specific. You can bet that Macs will get a female lightning port. But why then limit it to headphones, why not printers, flash drives or other accessories. Apple probably does not want to deal with implementing USB-c
the 3.5mm jack is old about 30+ years and its large and takes up space that could be better used for battery or something else.
By releasing the lightning spec for everyone a-la MiniDP/thunderbolt they can be in control of the next serial IO implementation.

Cause as it stands now, when USB-C comes out Apple would have to create a macbook with USB 3.0 and USB C and on the 11inch there is not enough space.
 
You mean besides the 2000 bluetooth headphones that are currently available on the market?

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Video killed the radio star.

Its really hard to watch videos when traveling or working out or doing real work. Music isn't going anywhere.
 
ALL output has to be analog at some point, as sound is an analog medium. I'm not sure what the benefit is of moving the DAC to the headphone is from the phone... I worry that there is a risk of switching to lower quality components. In-ear headphones for example would require an extremely small DAC circuit and amplifier - smaller than what you could fit in the phone.

Of course. But most in-ear headphones will continue to use the headphone jack.
 
first thought - "that's stupid."

Second thought - "that's the coolest thing in quite a while"

Think about it - never needing to charge your noise canceling headphones? Digital audio out? Sweet!!

I'm sticking with stupid. I have too many good headphones with 3.5mm jacks and a bunch of other devices which use these. Now I have to get separate headphones? No thanks. And I like battery life. Charging headphones via my phone is going to kill the battery life. Again, no thanks.
 
Am intrigued, thought the current lightening connector supported line out/in? seems to do fine with my son's 5C via a legacy (iphone 4 and prior) adaptor to his radio.

Remove the headphone jack - hell yes, it's legacy... reminds me of the pre/post HMDI scenario... albeit that was a more open standard. Took a while to take hold but now it's in all AV amps.

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Dual lightning connectors?

Sorry, I mean I charge my phone via Lightning connector and listening to my music via 3.5mm audio jack every day.
 
I'm sticking with stupid. I have too many good headphones with 3.5mm jacks and a bunch of other devices which use these. Now I have to get separate headphones? No thanks. And I like battery life. Charging headphones via my phone is going to kill the battery life. Again, no thanks.

Those straw men are no match for you!
 
Anyone "across the pond" think the EU isn't going to like this? They already don't like the lightening port as a proprietary charging port.

If this means Apple is getting rid of the headphone jack, it sucks for those of us with older cars. I have to use an FM transmitter in my 07 Corolla. I got one with 3.5mm input to use with my iPod Classic and iPhone 5 depending on if it's a road trip or just around town.
 
That's ridiculous. We still have ears. Apple can do both audio and video. Music is played out? Says who? There are audiophiles and videophiles and both deserve equal time.

Not to mention that music stimulates a different part of the brain to visuals like video, and as a medium has been around for as long as people have. I dont think that classical music is going to stop evoking strong emotion because the purported latest craze is video...

People didnt stop listening to music when film became popular. People didnt stop listening to music when VCRs were invented. People didnt stop listening to music when DVDs became mainstream. Even if video is the latest thing, it doesnt change a thing about music...
 
Let's be honest here. The apple branded in-ear headphones that retail for around $80 are decent. In fact, at the time they came out, they were one of few sub-$100 dual driver headphones. Possibly one of the best bangs for the buck.

Was it a great seller? I don't know. It probably did ok since it wasn't discontinued. But I don't know how well.

Would Apple branded lighting headphones do any better? Maybe.. But not great. It would probably be seen more as an possibly-overpriced niche audiophile product. There goes Apple again with their proprietary branded stuff.

But will Beats with lightning do any better than a standalone Apple branded headphone? Absolutely! The branding, marketing, will help it take off tremendously.
 
This is genius yet so wrong. It saves Apple from finally adding a decent D/A converter into their products and offloads the task (and cost) to the headphone manufacturers. It ties customers even deeper into their ecosystem as they won't be able to use their cans with other non-Applesources - unless you use an external D/A dongle (which for sure will become another third party accessories that floods the market). And by making the Wolfson converter mandatory, prices for headphones will increase further, just like they did with the intro of the current MFI standards: as a headphone manufacturer you have to buy the Knowles MEM-mics and the specific remote control PCB. And the 48KHz audio source becomes entirely irrelevant, once your doctoring the acoustics via an equaliser in your headphone anyway. Loudness set-ups all the way. :(
Where are the days of universal standards?:mad:
 
I'm sticking with stupid. I have too many good headphones with 3.5mm jacks and a bunch of other devices which use these. Now I have to get separate headphones? No thanks. And I like battery life. Charging headphones via my phone is going to kill the battery life. Again, no thanks.
Think different.

How about a cable/adapter that is 3.5 to lightning?
Not ideal but possible.
 
So Apple once again will be the first company to remove the 3.5 audio jack for lightning to make their future devices thinner. I mean to make an ipod nano thinner you can't anymore with 3.5 jack build in
 
Is this the end of the headphone jack?

Let's hope so. Putting it on the bottom of the iPhone makes it way less convenient than the previous version on the top.

And hi-def audio? Yes! The reason I bought a 5c instead of a 5S is that the audio quality is the same. My iPhone is pretty much just for email, telephone and listening to music. Hi-def audio would get me to buy whatever model it is offered on. That's right Apple. If you want to compel me to replace my one-year old iPhone 5c this fall with an unsubsidized iPhone 6whatever just offer true hi-def audio.
 
This is just the beginning...so glad Apple bought out beats!!!

ugh. buy beats for iovine, for dre, or for the subscription service. but for crappy headphones? no.

don't know why i'd want a pair of headphones that i could only use with my iphone...but i'm sure apple will show/tell me why...
 
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