analog output is a great deal ... with the right headphones and losless sources, high quality d/a-a/d-converters and headphone amplifers within smartphone's hardware, it can result in the best audio quality possible!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Introduces Lightning Cable MFi Specifications for Headphones
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
analog output is a great deal ... with the right headphones and losless sources, high quality d/a-a/d-converters and headphone amplifers within smartphone's hardware, it can result in the best audio quality possible!
Thats awesome, but how am i supposed to charge it while listening to something on the headphones?
Standard pin is analog so quality would improve a lot. Unfortunately that's proprietary, most likely headphones would be more expensive and you won't be able to charge your device while listening to music.
Why not making it wireless instead? Can't you transmit a decent amount of data enough for playback through Bluetooth?
Why not making it wireless instead? Can't you transmit a decent amount of data enough for playback through Bluetooth?
Apple won't be the first to remove 3.5mm and create a special connector but now one has gone digital before. I see them dropping the 3.5 and moving and DAC to an adapter and supplying it with the phone for a limited period. Some time you have to force change if the industry is not moving quick enough. Being honest the 3.5mm is long passed it, the 2.5mm never really caught on. And Bluetooth never did either. With the Amount of iPhone sold the industry will move if apple does.
I think that's why they shifted to the cloud. They don't market it but I don't store any of my iTunes content on my phone any more, but can stream it anytime and it plays like it's there even in shuffle mode.
Easy.
Your big beats headphones will be covered in solar panels. They'll charge the phone!
Just a side note, human hears can't barely hear anything past 17Khz, even 20Khz for the youngest.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist–Shannon_sampling_theorem
40KHz would me more than enough.
So why 44100KHz used in CD's and etc?
Simple
44100 = 2^2 * 3^2 * 5^2 * 7^2
The "magic" 44100 was selected because it would allow a good range of digital filters based on down-sampling, up-sampling of that sampling frequency.
For example, if you amplify (multiply) one sample for each 3, and leave the others, you'll get a treble increase.
So you you can easily equalize the highs (1 sample each 2), mid-highs (1 sample each 3), mid-lows (1 sample each 5) and lows (1 sample each 7), without requiring much CPU power, or anything that fancy, or even a high loss.
Well, if with this Apple wants to cater to the audiophile crowd and the likes, they should start by getting rid of the Beats headphone division, and purchase another brand - a serious headphone manufacturer... one that doesn't mean complete and utter garbage by all audio quality standards. Or at least launch this technology with another partner... because there's no way in hell an audio-knowledgeable user would even consider Beats headphones, lightning cable or not.
The reason Beats headphones distort the sound so much is precisely to trick its customers into thinking their music in lossy, low quality / low bitrate compressed formats, actually sounds OK. And to be fair, that's the only way to fit an entire library into a 16, 32 or 64 GB iPhone/iPad/iPod.
Beats headphones are by far the worst and most expensive piece of trash I've ever put over my ears. Seriously.
The reason Beats headphones distort the sound so much is precisely to trick its customers into thinking their music in lossy, low quality / low bitrate compressed formats, actually sounds OK. And to be fair, that's the only way to fit an entire library into a 16, 32 or 64 GB iPhone/iPad/iPod.
Beats headphones are by far the worst and most expensive piece of trash I've ever put over my ears. Seriously.
I don't think Apple is targeting the audiophiles even with 'HD audio'.
I think they are bringing better music quality to the masses.
Also more importantly, trying to light a fire under the declining music sales.
I think they are bringing better music quality to the masses.
Also more importantly, trying to light a fire under the declining music sales.
Because decoding of optical audio requires a power hungry DAC. So unless you want to be replacing the batteries in your headphones every two days. Over the lightning port, the audio, in addition to what little power is required, can be transferred from the phone.
----------
Until apple releases the iPod with integrated turntable, they're not going to target the audiophile market.
By making an even more expensive/complicated accessory and implementing audio formats that consume way more space in the limited iDevices?!?!?
I don't think so...
Such masses are not picky enough when it comes to audio quality to care about lossless, higher bitrate digital audio. Case in point: Beats by Dre headphones.
With this I agree... that's why Apple bought Beats - for their music streaming service, not their crappy overpriced hardware. And putting more electronics into them will not make them better, nor improve music sales.
Welcome to the future, where you have to buy new headphones if you switch to Android
Actually, that's sort of the case already. Ground and mic is switched around between some platforms (I think some hardware can switch, but wouldn't rely on it).
Seriously we get u do not like beats. It's getting old now! All apple needs to do is put better speakers in the beats headphones. It's not that serious#
It makes zero sense to even open this standard up.
48khz vs 44.1khz is not worth a headphone that is lighting only or needs stupid adapters. 24bit vs 16bit is worth it but is ignored because it doubles file size and rules out mp3s.
The only reasons I can see is power to headphones and rich data like artwork etc for hi-fi display. I don't know what people think is coming out the headphone jack but it'll be totally indistinguishable from this.
48khz vs 44.1khz is not worth a headphone that is lighting only or needs stupid adapters. 24bit vs 16bit is worth it but is ignored because it doubles file size and rules out mp3s.
The only reasons I can see is power to headphones and rich data like artwork etc for hi-fi display. I don't know what people think is coming out the headphone jack but it'll be totally indistinguishable from this.
Last edited:
So, Lightning headphones with integrated DAC, supposedly better than the built-in one. Yes, that could find its niche crowd. But come on, no Apple standard (except Firewire maybe) has seen broad adoption. Dont tell me about mini-DP. Why on earth did they put an HDMI port on rMBP for then? Thunderbolt? Super expensive.
No way they remove the headphone jack. You understand that right now the iPhone can connect to any audio equipment (and more, Square, iRig etc.). I could see them moving to 2.5mm jack in order to produce thinner phones and provide modified earbuds, but then again you would see lots of these:
or even worse:
Not looking good. Moreover, the 3.5mm jack is pretty sturdy compared to the 2.5mm one.
So to recap: 3.5mm (universal analog audio), Lightning (digital audio, already happening), Airplay/BT (wireless audio). None of them should go away.
Yeah, bring on the H.265 on-chip video decoders already!
No way they remove the headphone jack. You understand that right now the iPhone can connect to any audio equipment (and more, Square, iRig etc.). I could see them moving to 2.5mm jack in order to produce thinner phones and provide modified earbuds, but then again you would see lots of these:
or even worse:
Not looking good. Moreover, the 3.5mm jack is pretty sturdy compared to the 2.5mm one.
So to recap: 3.5mm (universal analog audio), Lightning (digital audio, already happening), Airplay/BT (wireless audio). None of them should go away.
Yeah, bring on the H.265 on-chip video decoders already!
I wonder how much of those who bought and never had a problem bother posting a rating. 185 out of ??? seems like a great statistics to show how crappy a product is. jeez ...
Thanks for noticing. Sorry.
Right... and all I need to make my car into a Bentley is a better set of tires...
PS did I mention Beats headphones are an abomination? they're a crime against nature!!!
cheers!
I'd rather see a new wireless hi-def audio standard which is backwards compatible with Bluetooth then be tied to cables. It's 2014 for heaven's sake. I also want week long battery life in wireless headsets. Why put more effort in being tied to cables?
Attachments
Last edited:
I wouldn't be shocked (though disappointed) if Apple introduced it's own Wireless Charging Standard here pretty soon. Would allow charging of the iPhone when the Lightning port is in use, and possibly even have new Beats headphones using it.
so the iPhone 6 is going to have only a lightning port on it, and you will have to pay $20 for a lightning to phono jack if you want to use a non-apple set of headphones...
i can see it coming
i can see it coming
Worst case scenario there's a pass through required for 3.5mm earphones.
It would be small and make next to no difference in day to day use.
It would be small and make next to no difference in day to day use.