Apple iPhone Lightning Dock Review: Simple Design With Broad Compatibility, but Some Stability Concerns

[Lostanddamned]

Here's my Mini on the new iPhone Lightning Dock.

What would you say to stability? Worth the risk?

 

[ttate90303]

What would you say to stability? Worth the risk?

It's pretty stable.

 

[n-evo]

I got one yesterday and overall I'd stay it's pretty stable together with an iPhone 5s/6. I owned the Universal Dock and the new one really isn't any more or less stable than the previous one. Bonus is the new Dock works together with cases.

 

[rebscb]

Not with Tech 21 Cases

I ordered one and discovered that it is not compatible with my Tech 21 case on my iPhone 6, so off it goes back to Apple!

 

[qwaliti]

I think he was assuming that only digital audio was available through the Lightening port. IIRC, Lightening also carries analog audio, negating the need for a DAC.

Great, so a simple lightning to 3.5mm jack would give me a line level audio output? The 30-pin cable yes had analogue audio (and video) output, But the lightning cable does not. One of the disadvantages of going from 30 pins to 8 pins, but in the future Apple will allow 3rd party companies to develop DAC's and decoders that will do away with the need for a headphone port. And everything iPhone goes through the 1 lightning port - headphones, chargers etc.
Apple probably have some future plan where any unlicensed accessories will stop working when they update iOS. The new Lightning dock has an internal DAC or decoder. The Chinese will be backwards engineering these as we speak. Hopefully they can break apple security and we can have much cheaper versions of these soon.....until the next iOS that is.

The new dock is good I have one right now, It is unstable and it skids around on any flat surface, but you can put your fingers behind it and use your thumb like normal, or you could glue it to your desk. I have a thin protection case on my 6 plus and it's one of the few docks around that will still work with a case.

 

[qwaliti]

Not a big fan of this design. Looks too unstable. Besides, do many people still use docks anyway? That's why this announcement caught me off guard. I thought Apple was done with this. It's a bit overpriced too, but so was the red Apple leather case for my iPhone which has not aged well. I wish they would just come out with inductive charging for the iPhone like the Apple Watch.

This dock is great for audio, it is line level output so it bypasses the poor iPhone headphone amplifier, and you can plug this directly into your $10,000 amplifier, like you could do with the 30-pin docks. This is still not audiophile quality, a pure audiophile would probably never use an iPhone to listen to music.

 

[Zxxv]

Probably not

OTOH, I bought three of them for about $22, which saved me $100 over getting the Apple version, which doesn't even come with its own cable. (Add lots more $$$ for that, if you wanted to use the original cable somewhere else, like with a car charger.)

For all that savings, and a nice dock to boot, I'll live without the Apple label tax

The point they were making is when a product is not MFI certified apple can cause it to stop working anytime they choose. An update to iOS and suddenly your cable, dock or accessory stops working.

 

[cyberhazy]

This dock is great for audio, it is line level output so it bypasses the poor iPhone headphone amplifier, and you can plug this directly into your $10,000 amplifier, like you could do with the 30-pin docks. This is still not audiophile quality, a pure audiophile would probably never use an iPhone to listen to music.

Unlike previous Apple docks, this one has a headphone output instead of the line level output. The iPhone actually detects this difference and does not disable its own volume control. So the new dock bypasses the "poor" iPhone headphone amplifier, and substitutes in its own "poor" headphone amplifier. In reality, neither amplifier is all that bad, so I'm not really complaining about the design change. But if you hook this dock up to an "audiophile" quality headphone or speaker amplifier, you're still double-amping the iPhone output, which is not ideal if your picky about sound quality.

 

[qwaliti]

Unlike previous Apple docks, this one has a headphone output instead of the line level output. The iPhone actually detects this difference and does not disable its own volume control. So the new dock bypasses the "poor" iPhone headphone amplifier, and substitutes in its own "poor" headphone amplifier. In reality, neither amplifier is all that bad, so I'm not really complaining about the design change. But if you hook this dock up to an "audiophile" quality headphone or speaker amplifier, you're still double-amping the iPhone output, which is not ideal if your picky about sound quality.

So does iPhone 5, 5s, 6, 6+ have line level output at all?

 

[cyberhazy]

Apple says the lightning dock output is both for "headphone playback support" and "audio line out", and in the few days I've been using it, I think it works fine either way. I've found that if you leave the phone's volume control at 100%, then the lightning dock's output levels are roughly comparable to line level output. (The only difference being that there is an added low-impedance buffer stage to support headphone use.) Theoretically, if you set the volume control to anything less than 100%, you are adding digital attenuation and losing bit depth from the audio signal. I use the 100%-volume dock output connected to a portable headphone amplifier, and use the amplifier's analog volume control to set listening levels. If you plug headphones straight into the lightning dock, your listening levels are controlled via digital attenuation so the sound quality is somewhat degraded. (But probably no worse than using the iPhone's built-in headphone output). If you have volume/playback controls built into your headphones (like the earbuds that come with the phone), the lightning dock relays the control signals back to your phone and the phone adjusts its output via digital attenuation.

 

[loon3y]

Does anyone else have problems with lightning cables? My family seem to get through one a month!

I went through many many cables, so far this is my ranking:


1. MOS Lightning Cable - https://mosorganizer.com/mos-spring-lightning-cable-black-1m: Best one so far, uses that homemade modification with the pen springs and has nice exoskeleton type body. You can't tangle this cable.

2. Belkin Braided MIXIT Cable - http://www.belkin.com/us/F8J144-Belkin/p/P-F8J144/: Best braided cable I came across, couple other ones I've used that looked and supposed to be heavy duty and were thicker broke. This one stands true.

3. Belkin Cable MIXIT Cable - http://www.belkin.com/us/F8J023-Belkin/p/P-F8J023/: This cable was simple and surprisingly still good and sturdy, this isn't the one that comes with their car chargers or other products (they are thinner and probably more prone to break). This cable hasn't broke on me.

4. Monster Lightning Cable - http://www.amazon.com/Monster-iCabl...00978&sr=8-1&keywords=monster+lightning+cable: These aren't bad, the only flat cable i used so far. But they do start to have the same problem like the apple ones if you bend them too much, mine haven't broke yet but after physical signs, I've been taken good care of them.

Worthy of note I haven't got yet:


- Mophie Switch-Tip:http://www.mophie.com/shop/cables-adapters/switch-tip-cable
- Mophie Flat Lightning Cable: http://www.mophie.com/shop/cables-adapters/premium-flat-cable
- Anker Powerline: https://www.anker.com/products/A8111012



You can also try amazon basic lightning cables, but I tend to like to the bigger brands. They have more experience now, its nearly their 3rd generation of designs of these cables. MOS aside i usually stay with the bigger brands.

 

[Mike Oxard]

I got a couple of the Belkin mix it coloured ones since I posted and they have lasted ok so far. I might get the MOS braided one for the kids though.