I use my 3.5mm plug every day at work. That said, a lightening to 3.5mm adapter would make zero difference.
In my music studio I literally NEVER use the 3.5mm plug. My PRO headphones (Sennheiser HD650s) plug into my Metric Halo audio interface via 6.5mm plug.
The DA and amplifier in the MBP is not professional standard. It is discernibly inferior to the Metric Halo DA and amplifier.
So those arguing that Pro machines need a 3.5mm plug are wrong because:-
It's not professional quality.
6.5mm is the standard for the best studio headphones
The built in amp is not professional standard for driving top of the line headphones.
I do agree that a 3.5mm jack is not professional, considering that most if not all audio professionals use a different set up for their listening.
But for someone who uses their headphone jack at the school library, I do like the convenice.
But maybe right now, the forward goal for Apple might actually be targeted toward heavy professional use of very particular gear.
Most students I see these days just use their laptops Mac/PC for web browsing, music, and documents. As far as professionals go or pro devices, it's getting rather repetitive to hear about what a "pro" or "professional" does. Just as long as the product can get the work done that in its own right could be considered a pro device.
People call the surface pro a pro device but still has very underpowered hardware, but is capable of doing the things that a good portion of "pro" users need.
I'm probably going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but not everyone professional uses 3D rendering software, video production suites, or has 20+ plus instruments for their full orchestral scores for music creation.
Maybe Apple is actually creating a line specifically geared towards those that are heavy users of powerful software and those that don't.
If that's a problem, there are always alternatives like in Windows and Linux.
