Apple's Phil Schiller Recommends Lightning Dock for Charging an iPhone 7 While Listening to Music

[Mac 128]

Here's a question - with third party adapters, is there a risk Apple will do the same as they did for the charging cables and prohibit their use?

Yes. They absolutely will. Until Chinese manufacturers reverse engineer the technology and offer it without a license.

 

[Ploki]

Do you even read what you're replying to?

Where was I complaining about having to buy an adapter? I even acknowledge in my post that I DO have to buy an adapter now to split a 3.5mm Jack into to, so that's not the problem.

The problem is that they took away functionality that many people use today, and have not offered a means to replace it with Lightning or BT, despite offering a $40 adapter that appears to do it, but doesn't. In fact for $40, all it does is offer a Lightning pass-through for charging, and an audio passthrough. Considering an audio adapter costs $9 and includes a DAC, ADC, and amp, that seems a bit excessive.

While I understand your point about not splitting VGA, that wasn't a really common thing, nor was it recommended -- VGA has enough signal problems driving one monitor without ghosting and interference. Splitting a 3.5mm Jack for multiple headphones is quite common with many uses from the kids playing a game or watching a movie together in the backseat of a car, to a DJ, monitoring the feed he's sending to the sound system.

No self-respecting DJ will use a passive splitter, but nevermind that.

40$ for splitting lightning+audio is expensive, i'm just saying it's an option and although you've got to have 3 dongles connected (belkin lightning, lightning >3.5mm and 3.5mm Y splitter) it does the job.

a simple bluetooth to 3.5mm is also an option.

I'm fairly certain that if demand for charging+3.5mm really is as high as this forum seems to suggest, someone will come up with a simple lightning + 3.5mm solution.

I personally think that wireless is were things are headed, and that multiple bluetooth connections will eventually be an option.

I also don't believe that demand for charging + audio output is/was as high as you suggest.

No, I meant the concept of a battery - It's made up of an anode and a cathode with electrons flowing between them through an electrolyte to produce an electric current. This concept is hundreds of years old.

And in case you didn't notice I was attempting to be facetious.

I did notice, but battery does seem a serious problem in modern devices and we're all waiting for it to be replaced with something that lasts longer and charges faster, doesn't explode or swell and doesn't die and needs to be replaced after a year.

 

[ENduro]

Does that trigger you? Haha grow up—everyone is entitled to their opinion, don't like it don't reply to me and don't buy the iPhone 7.

Don't tell me how to travel, troll.

 

[Mac 128]

No self-respecting DJ will use a passive splitter, but nevermind that.

40$ for splitting lightning+audio is expensive, i'm just saying it's an option and although you've got to have 3 dongles connected (belkin lightning, lightning >3.5mm and 3.5mm Y splitter) it does the job.

a simple bluetooth to 3.5mm is also an option.

I'm fairly certain that if demand for charging+3.5mm really is as high as this forum seems to suggest, someone will come up with a simple lightning + 3.5mm solution.

I personally think that wireless is were things are headed, and that multiple bluetooth connections will eventually be an option.

I also don't believe that demand for charging + audio output is/was as high as you suggest.

I know it can be done with a 3.5mm jack, but that doesn't really move anybody forward does it?

Again -- you say the demand is not as high as I suggest, except Apple went out of their way to work with Belkin to make sure the capability was ready from day one. If that's not evidence of significant demand, at least perceived by Apple, then I don't know what is.

I agree about wireless being the future, but Apple has to get through the transition, and sell people on the idea. What point is there in removing the headphone jack without a complete solution in place to mitigate the basic issues? Putting a wired headphone in the box WITH a wired adapter does not help make their cause, in fact it hurts it, especially when the improved wired options are over a month away from even being available.

None of these things are significant hurtles for a company like Apple. It just didn't need to be this hard.

 

[Ploki]

I know it can be done with a 3.5mm jack, but that doesn't really move anybody forward does it?

Again -- you say the demand is not as high as I suggest, except Apple went out of their way to work with Belkin to make sure the capability was ready from day one. If that's not evidence of significant demand, at least perceived by Apple, then I don't know what is.

I agree about wireless being the future, but Apple has to get through the transition, and sell people on the idea. What point is there in removing the headphone jack without a complete solution in place to mitigate the basic issues? Putting a wired headphone in the box WITH a wired adapter does not help make their cause, in fact it hurts it, especially when the improved wired options are over a month away from even being available.

None of these things are significant hurtles for a company like Apple. It just didn't need to be this hard.

The current solutions are supposed to be "bridge" solutions i think. There's no easy way of pulling the plug.

I do think they're being cheap by not throwing airpods in with iPhone 7. Actually, I was pretty certain that would happen... i mean, that's the true money grab, not removing the jack, but not throwing wireless airpods in the bag.

 

[djsukebe]

Except it's not. I didn't need my CD drive every day before going to sleep, like i charge my phone and listen to music at the same time. You're argument is inacurate.

Your* argument is just as inaccurate.

You can argue that a person who watched DVDs every day before going to sleep would need to use their external CD/DVD.

I am referring to moving on to old technology. Come and check back in with me when you have finally moved on to wireless headphones and let me know if you still need that old headphone jack technology.
[doublepost=1473814118][/doublepost]

It's not at all the same thing. By the time the Macbook airs came out I was very rarely using optical media AND there was a cheaper, superior solution available in the form of USB keys for data.

The 3.5mm headphone jack would be one of the most ubiquitous consumer standards on the planet and the alternatives are inferior (in the case of Bluetooth) or proprietary (in the case of Lightening) and significantly more expensive. Completely different situation.

When the MacBook airs came out, you were very rarely using optical media... doesn't mean most people rarely used it.

I have been using wireless headphones, bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth car connectivity since I got the iphone 6 and haven't had to use my headphone jack once since. Maybe I'm too early of an adopter?

 

[Mac 128]

Your* argument is just as inaccurate.

You can argue that a person who watched DVDs every day before going to sleep would need to use their external CD/DVD.

I am referring to moving on to old technology. Come and check back in with me when you have finally moved on to wireless headphones and let me know if you still need that old headphone jack technology.
[doublepost=1473814118][/doublepost]

When the MacBook airs came out, you were very rarely using optical media... doesn't mean most people rarely used it.

I have been using wireless headphones, bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth car connectivity since I got the iphone 6 and haven't had to use my headphone jack once since. Maybe I'm too early of an adopter?

One thing I can't do with wireless as far as I know, and that's share the same audio program. So, if I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight and my girlfriend and I want to listen to an audio book, or podcast together, our only choices are play it over the speaker, or plug-in a splitter into the headphone jack and plug into that together with our wired headphones. With the iPhone 7 we'll need to add the 3.5mm adapter first as there is no solution to do this with the Lightning headphones either.

If I can do that, then BT would be a much more desirable option for this shared activity.

 

[TrueBlou]

One thing I can't do with wireless as far as I know, and that's share the same audio program. So, if I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight and my girlfriend and I want to listen to an audio book, or podcast together, our only choices are play it over the speaker, or plug-in a splitter into the headphone jack and plug into that together with our wired headphones. With the iPhone 7 we'll need to add the 3.5mm adapter first as there is no solution to do this with the Lightning headphones either.

If I can do that, then BT would be a much more desirable option for this shared activity.

There have been Bluetooth headphones available for quite some time which allow exactly this. The primary set is paired with the iPhone, the secondary set is then paired to the primary set. So it's more a case of buying the right headphones if that's something that's important.

 

[Abazigal]

One thing I can't do with wireless as far as I know, and that's share the same audio program. So, if I'm sitting in the airport waiting for a flight and my girlfriend and I want to listen to an audio book, or podcast together, our only choices are play it over the speaker, or plug-in a splitter into the headphone jack and plug into that together with our wired headphones. With the iPhone 7 we'll need to add the 3.5mm adapter first as there is no solution to do this with the Lightning headphones either.

If I can do that, then BT would be a much more desirable option for this shared activity.

The airpods allow for this, if I am not mistaken. Each person can wear one of the airpods and music will still be played to both of them.

 

[Mac 128]

There have been Bluetooth headphones available for quite some time which allow exactly this. The primary set is paired with the iPhone, the secondary set is then paired to the primary set. So it's more a case of buying the right headphones if that's something that's important.

Interesting. I've never heard of that. I wonder how complicated that process is, and how many headphones can be daisey chained? I'll have to look into that. So really it's just a matter of adding this capability to a pair with the W1 chip then.

The airpods allow for this, if I am not mistaken. Each person can wear one of the airpods and music will still be played to both of them.

Right ... Dropping the headphone jack reduces shared audio listening from stereo to mono. That's real innovation! Or is that courage? ;-)

 

[jrbdmb]

will this silence the whining? no. of course not. there must always be whining.

there was also a BT clip posted to MR not long ago that had a 3.5mm jack in it, i believe. simple solution for older cars (or a replacement head unit, of course).

Because it's a crap solution. Something I could easily do before anywhere now requires me to carry around a $50 Apple dock or a $40 Belkin dongle. No thanks.
[doublepost=1473886860][/doublepost]

How was VGA obsolete when it came out? Most of screens weren't capable of displaying anything near the resolution any way.

Digital connections are simpler, require less cables, are less prone to losses (you either have total loss or none, but there is no inherent signal degradation with a digital signal).

Further more, by removing the 3.5mm jack, DAC and preamp are moved onto the adapter or the connection is entirely digital.

1. In many cases digital is simpler, but in this case you are replacing analog wire with one digital wire. And you are adding a DAC and amp to the headphones while still requiring a mechanical transducer, so if anything the new solution is at least slightly more complicated and prone to failure than the old. Plus a DAC and preamp are still required in the iPhone to drive the internal speakers. The only savings in the phone is the space that was taken up by the analog jack.

2. Theoretically there is less chance of signal degradation, but in my experience this has never been an issue with a typical 3 foot analog headphone cable.

3. Since the ultimate end point (the human ear) is analog, there is never an "entirely digital" transmission.

I certainly grumbled a bit when Apple moved from the 30-pin connector to Lightning, but I did realize that there were definite advantages of the switch. But in this case I really see no advantages other than "it's new."+

 

[AppleBytes]

HFPA is high fidelity pure audio. The high end optical media for music. It offers stereo and surround sound playback for use in bluray players. However only a VERY limited amount of music is available and these (and similar formats such as SACD) are the source (in most cases) for 24 bit flac. In the vast majority of cases, music is provided in lossy mp3 type formats from online stores. Ergo, CD is still the best format for purchasing music. And one can then rip to their preferred media file type.

I think you're quite misinformed. HFPA is a marketing name Universal uses for their largely failed and out-of-touch BluRay music idea from some years back.

Most 24-bit flac files come either directly from record labels and bands or from 3rd parties who specialize in remastering audio at higher bitrates than they were originally released. In either case, somebody has gone to either the original digital or analogue masters, or in the case of older recordings where the masters don't exist anymore, a good analogue source. They're then remastered for 24/96 or 24/192 or DSD instead of 16/44.1 and released either via a site like HDTracks, or for direct sale on the record label or band's website or a service like Bandcamp. "The source" for 24-bit FLACs isn't Bluray or SACD discs, but they rather share the same source, which is a digital master or remaster of the original recording.

There is a lot of HD music available online nowadays. HDTracks has thousands or tens of thousands of albums up right now, and most new albums are released somewhere or other in 24-bit. Therefore, I'd say the CD is no longer the best format for purchasing music.
[doublepost=1473918208][/doublepost]

But most of the time when doing serious music production you have a dedicated audio interface that handles all your audio needs. This is certainly a unique situation though in your case.

Actually, there are several very popular products by apogee and IKmultimedia that use the lighting port get sound and midi information into the phone, which process/records it and outputs via the headphone jack. They have A/D converters to convert guitar or microphone signal to digital but don't have their own D/A converters, so the headphone jack is totally necessary.

Some guitarists, DJs and singers then use their phones or ipads as virtual effects pedals and plug the headphone jack out directly into an amp or pa system. The iPhone 7 is effectively incompatible with some of these devices, which can be pretty pricey. It's especially disappointing with the Apogee gear, since Apogee is an "official partner" of apple and has among other things really pushed thunderbolt (which will apparently require a dongle on the coming Macbook Pros). You'd think that apple would have let them know the headphone jack was being dropped in time so they wouldn't release products that will be useless on the coming generation of phones..

Here's Slash using an IKMultimedia unit that relies on the headphone jack for output (he's using an iPad, but the same setup is iPhone compatible):

The Apogee Jam similarly is input-only and require the headphone jack for output.

 

[Ploki]

Because it's a crap solution. Something I could easily do before anywhere now requires me to carry around a $50 Apple dock or a $40 Belkin dongle. No thanks.
[doublepost=1473886860][/doublepost]

1. In many cases digital is simpler, but in this case you are replacing analog wire with one digital wire. And you are adding a DAC and amp to the headphones while still requiring a mechanical transducer, so if anything the new solution is at least slightly more complicated and prone to failure than the old. Plus a DAC and preamp are still required in the iPhone to drive the internal speakers. The only savings in the phone is the space that was taken up by the analog jack.

2. Theoretically there is less chance of signal degradation, but in my experience this has never been an issue with a typical 3 foot analog headphone cable.

3. Since the ultimate end point (the human ear) is analog, there is never an "entirely digital" transmission.

I certainly grumbled a bit when Apple moved from the 30-pin connector to Lightning, but I did realize that there were definite advantages of the switch. But in this case I really see no advantages other than "it's new."+

1) in the case of VGA you were doing exactly the same.
I really believe that in the long run this is replacing analog wire with digital wireless.
Preamp for headphones is most likely different than the one for speakers.
And DAC and Preamp are super small compared to the headphone jack.
And in any case, you can also replace *four* analog wires with *one* optical (much less prone to fraying and dying). ADAT standard for example can carry 8x uncompressed 44.1/24bit over one single optical cable.

2) I agree, i was saying theoretically. What I do know is channel dropping and out of phase ******** and a lot of different "feature" of ever dying headphone jack. Nearly all my eardbuds died because of headphone jacks going dead. And soldering these is a pain in the ass... its hard to get the connectors (especially as small as original one), its hard to solder them, and the wires are coated (so they can slip inside coating). It's horrible. I'm buying AirPods when my current EarPods die. (on second pair, first one died because headphone jack)

3) That's nonsense. Might as well kill HDMI because eyes are analog.

Well, the advantage is water proofing. There are plenty of advantages that could be alongside 3.5mm jack. But you could say that for everything that was drop from computers ever. The only issues is that a lot of audio equipment is now obsolete without and adapter. Which is *always* the case when you make a hard cut.


I've been really paying attention on how often "charging + listening" at the same time happens, and... not that much. Really, not that much. That only makes sense in dedicated scenarios where you're near a wall plug. Why would you need to carry your adapter with you all the time?
[doublepost=1473928421][/doublepost]

Some guitarists, DJs and singers then use their phones or ipads as virtual effects pedals and plug the headphone jack out directly into an amp or pa system. The iPhone 7 is effectively incompatible with some of these devices, which can be pretty pricey. It's especially disappointing with the Apogee gear, since Apogee is an "official partner" of apple and has among other things really pushed thunderbolt (which will apparently require a dongle on the coming Macbook Pros). You'd think that apple would have let them know the headphone jack was being dropped in time so they wouldn't release products that will be useless on the coming generation of phones..

Here's Slash using an IKMultimedia unit that relies on the headphone jack for output (he's using an iPad, but the same setup is iPhone compatible):

The Apogee Jam similarly is input-only and require the headphone jack for output.

Wow, when FW was dropped from macbooks almost *all* semi professional audio interfaces were firewire, because USB interfaces were mostly ****, and professional was reserved for PCI extensions.
It's different today, but I've used a dongle on my MBP for firewire since 2012 and I seem to be doing okay. I don't care if I need to use it on my next MBP, I'm used to it.

I don't know what the big deal is, apogee will update its JAM to include a headphone jack and that's that. Also, the market for musicians is not that big to account for that. Why not include a standard 1/4" jack while we're at it, since most of musicians will use that?

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

I think you're quite misinformed. HFPA is a marketing name Universal uses for their largely failed and out-of-touch BluRay music idea from some years back.

Most 24-bit flac files come either directly from record labels and bands or from 3rd parties who specialize in remastering audio at higher bitrates than they were originally released. In either case, somebody has gone to either the original digital or analogue masters, or in the case of older recordings where the masters don't exist anymore, a good analogue source. They're then remastered for 24/96 or 24/192 or DSD instead of 16/44.1 and released either via a site like HDTracks, or for direct sale on the record label or band's website or a service like Bandcamp. "The source" for 24-bit FLACs isn't Bluray or SACD discs, but they rather share the same source, which is a digital master or remaster of the original recording.

There is a lot of HD music available online nowadays. HDTracks has thousands or tens of thousands of albums up right now, and most new albums are released somewhere or other in 24-bit. Therefore, I'd say the CD is no longer the best format for purchasing music.
[doublepost=1473918208][/doublepost]

Actually, there are several very popular products by apogee and IKmultimedia that use the lighting port get sound and midi information into the phone, which process/records it and outputs via the headphone jack. They have A/D converters to convert guitar or microphone signal to digital but don't have their own D/A converters, so the headphone jack is totally necessary.

Some guitarists, DJs and singers then use their phones or ipads as virtual effects pedals and plug the headphone jack out directly into an amp or pa system. The iPhone 7 is effectively incompatible with some of these devices, which can be pretty pricey. It's especially disappointing with the Apogee gear, since Apogee is an "official partner" of apple and has among other things really pushed thunderbolt (which will apparently require a dongle on the coming Macbook Pros). You'd think that apple would have let them know the headphone jack was being dropped in time so they wouldn't release products that will be useless on the coming generation of phones..

Here's Slash using an IKMultimedia unit that relies on the headphone jack for output (he's using an iPad, but the same setup is iPhone compatible):

The Apogee Jam similarly is input-only and require the headphone jack for output.

I accept what you say. My experience of 24bit audio is with music that was released on SA-CD and DVD audio already.
24bit has very limited availability and is only suitable for people with high quality audio. It not suitable for an iPhone for instance. The large file size of over 1Gb for the average album makes it unsuitable for smart phones without removable media. Compare the time to transfer 30 albums to a new phone over a cable compared to transferring an SD card.

For the vast majority of users, a CD is not inferior to media downloads and is the better option for best quality. One can always rip to their prefered format with a CD.

 

[Ploki]

I accept what you say. My experience of 24bit audio is with music that was released on SA-CD and DVD audio already.
24bit has very limited availability and is only suitable for people with high quality audio. It not suitable for an iPhone for instance. The large file size of over 1Gb for the average album makes it unsuitable for smart phones without removable media. Compare the time to transfer 30 albums to a new phone over a cable compared to transferring an SD card.

For the vast majority of users, a CD is not inferior to media downloads and is the better option for best quality. One can always rip to their prefered format with a CD.

CD is dead? why are we talking about a CD?

 

[TrueBlou]

I accept what you say. My experience of 24bit audio is with music that was released on SA-CD and DVD audio already.
24bit has very limited availability and is only suitable for people with high quality audio. It not suitable for an iPhone for instance. The large file size of over 1Gb for the average album makes it unsuitable for smart phones without removable media. Compare the time to transfer 30 albums to a new phone over a cable compared to transferring an SD card.

For the vast majority of users, a CD is not inferior to media downloads and is the better option for best quality. One can always rip to their prefered format with a CD.

I like a bit of high quality music myself, having started with it way, way back in the days before download and streaming music, when it was on this weird shiny disc like thing. I’ve got a small(ish) but much loved collection so far and I’ll keep adding to it.

However I don't agree at all that high quality source material is unsuitable for an iPhone, I've been listening to mine on my iPhone for quite some time. While it's clearly much better on good quality home audio equipment (what isn't?) that you can't argue with. With the right app on iOS it’s certainly possible to play most any format and high quality source material definitely makes a difference. Quite a big difference if you're using good headphones as well.

Out of curiosity, I just did a transfer of one of my albums, which is just under 1GB in size. 983MB to be exact.

My first transfer was using iTunes File Transfer to the Onkyo HF Player app, using a standard Lightning cable connected to a USB 3 port. The transfer time was 69 seconds in total, not too bad, certainly bearable. And it matched what I expected from years of transferring audio this way.

The second transfer was to a class 10 Samsung SD card, plugged directly into the SD reader on my iMac. Surprisingly (very, very surprisingly) the time for that transfer, using the same album, was 2min 34sec. I expected it to be a lot faster than that. Thinking there must obviously be some sort of error in the process I tried with different cards from different manufacturers and at different speeds. Different connections and adapters and finally a flash drive connected directly to the USB 3 Port, which turned out to be the fastest of the (non-Lightning) transfers at just under 2 minutes, but still slower than Lightning.

Honestly, I can’t explain the speeds, at least one of the cards or the flash drive I really expected to be significantly faster than the iTunes transfer, but no joy. I'm truly baffled and I just can't explain why the transfers weren't faster than they were.

To put my mind at rest and rule out some sort of issue with my iMac, I transferred the same album to one of my USB 3 Hard Drives (a 4TB Seagate) and thankfully that restored my faith in the computer and the technology as the transfer to that drive took just 5 seconds (if only everything was that quick.)

So long story short, I honestly don't see using an iPhone for HD audio to be an issue. I’ve been doing just that for a few years now, I think I started back with the iPhone 5 and that only had 64GB of storage, iirc.

When it comes to storage I genuinely don’t see the lack of external storage to be an issue. When we now have the option of up to 256GB of internal storage and most of our photos, files and normal music is stored in the cloud, just how much internal space do we need. Or more appropriately, how many HD albums do we really need on a device at once? You could comfortably have up to 150 albums, or more, and still have plenty of available storage on your iPhone.

So the storage isn't an issue, the ability to play the files isn't an issue, the ability to purchase high quality source material isn't an issue, the quality of the sound produced isn't an issue (provided you are using good quality cans.) So all in all, if you want to listen to high quality music on an iPhone, there's literally nothing to stop you.


(Waffled on a bit much, my apologies, as often is the case, I'm medicated to high heaven. Nerve damage is a bugger, but the morphine and other pills do make you awfy chatty. We're lucky. I could probably go on for a few more pages worth on this topic )

CD is dead? why are we talking about a CD?

CD? What on earth are you talking about man? Is that some sort of slang for Creaky old Digital music or something?

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

I like a bit of high quality music myself, having started with it way, way back in the days before download and streaming music, when it was on this weird shiny disc like thing. I’ve got a small(ish) but much loved collection so far and I’ll keep adding to it.

However I don't agree at all that high quality source material is unsuitable for an iPhone, I've been listening to mine on my iPhone for quite some time. While it's clearly much better on good quality home audio equipment (what isn't?) that you can't argue with. With the right app on iOS it’s certainly possible to play most any format and high quality source material definitely makes a difference. Quite a big difference if you're using good headphones as well.

Out of curiosity, I just did a transfer of one of my albums, which is just under 1GB in size. 983MB to be exact.

My first transfer was using iTunes File Transfer to the Onkyo HF Player app, using a standard Lightning cable connected to a USB 3 port. The transfer time was 69 seconds in total, not too bad, certainly bearable. And it matched what I expected from years of transferring audio this way.

The second transfer was to a class 10 Samsung SD card, plugged directly into the SD reader on my iMac. Surprisingly (very, very surprisingly) the time for that transfer, using the same album, was 2min 34sec. I expected it to be a lot faster than that. Thinking there must obviously be some sort of error in the process I tried with different cards from different manufacturers and at different speeds. Different connections and adapters and finally a flash drive connected directly to the USB 3 Port, which turned out to be the fastest of the (non-Lightning) transfers at just under 2 minutes, but still slower than Lightning.

Honestly, I can’t explain the speeds, at least one of the cards or the flash drive I really expected to be significantly faster than the iTunes transfer, but no joy. I'm truly baffled and I just can't explain why the transfers weren't faster than they were.

To put my mind at rest and rule out some sort of issue with my iMac, I transferred the same album to one of my USB 3 Hard Drives (a 4TB Seagate) and thankfully that restored my faith in the computer and the technology as the transfer to that drive took just 5 seconds (if only everything was that quick.)

So long story short, I honestly don't see using an iPhone for HD audio to be an issue. I’ve been doing just that for a few years now, I think I started back with the iPhone 5 and that only had 64GB of storage, iirc.

When it comes to storage I genuinely don’t see the lack of external storage to be an issue. When we now have the option of up to 256GB of internal storage and most of our photos, files and normal music is stored in the cloud, just how much internal space do we need. Or more appropriately, how many HD albums do we really need on a device at once? You could comfortably have up to 150 albums, or more, and still have plenty of available storage on your iPhone.

So the storage isn't an issue, the ability to play the files isn't an issue, the ability to purchase high quality source material isn't an issue, the quality of the sound produced isn't an issue (provided you are using good quality cans.) So all in all, if you want to listen to high quality music on an iPhone, there's literally nothing to stop you.


(Waffled on a bit much, my apologies, as often is the case, I'm medicated to high heaven. Nerve damage is a bugger, but the morphine and other pills do make you awfy chatty. We're lucky. I could probably go on for a few more pages worth on this topic )




CD? What on earth are you talking about man? Is that some sort of slang for Creaky old Digital music or something?

IPhone does not have a high quality enough analogue output stage to justify 24bit. If you think it's better it's due to you wanting it to sound better . You need well designed power rails around the DAC and power amp to benefit from 24bit.
Once files are on Micro SD you move the files by physically relocating the card.
[doublepost=1474036898][/doublepost]

CD is dead? why are we talking about a CD?

Apple wants you to believe that. Why do you think there are no CD drives in their products. To lead you by the hand to r heir iTunes store and their 30% cut

 

[TrueBlou]

IPhone does not have a high quality enough analogue output stage to justify 24bit. If you think it's better it's due to you wanting it to sound better . You need well designed power rails around the DAC and power amp to benefit from 24bit.
Once files are on Micro SD you move the files by physically relocating the card.
[doublepost=1474036898][/doublepost]
Apple wants you to believe that. Why do you think there are no CD drives in their products. To lead you by the hand to r heir iTunes store and their 30% cut

Ana who? This is the 21st century, we have things like Lightning headphones which their own DAC and have had for a while now.

If you want higher quality audio from an iPhone you need to forget that little hole exists because you're dead right, the analog output from an iPhone just isn't up to the task. Although that said, the better quality of the source material, the better the sound is even with its limitations. Y'know, the old garbage in garbage out.

Lightning on the other hand is and there's already Lightning headphones on the market designed with high resolution audio in mind.

 

[Ploki]

Apple wants you to believe that. Why do you think there are no CD drives in their products. To lead you by the hand to r heir iTunes store and their 30% cut

no. CD is dead. Sales are irrelevant and there's less and less devices supporting it. Good riddance to bad rubbish anyway

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

Ana who? This is the 21st century, we have things like Lightning headphones which their own DAC and have had for a while now.

If you want higher quality audio from an iPhone you need to forget that little hole exists because you're dead right, the analog output from an iPhone just isn't up to the task. Although that said, the better quality of the source material, the better the sound is even with its limitations. Y'know, the old garbage in garbage out.

Lightning on the other hand is and there's already Lightning headphones on the market designed with high resolution audio in mind.

A Lightning headphone will give better performance if the DAC and audio amp have a well designed power supply. Unlikely if it is using the noisy rails from the iPhone. I have a discrete headphone amp I use to listen to music from my laptop, with its own, separate well designed power source and high quality amp stage. With Sensheisser Momentums I find it difficult lt to hear a difference from CD quality flac and 24 bit flac.
[doublepost=1474041651][/doublepost]

no. CD is dead. Sales are irrelevant and there's less and less devices supporting it. Good riddance to bad rubbish anyway

I only need a quality CD player for home music system and a properly configured laptop to create flac files for all my portable audio devices. I have never bought any music from iTunes.
How is a professionaly manufactured CD with quality booklet that I can use to create all my flac files rubbish.?

 

[TrueBlou]

A Lightning headphone will give better performance if the DAC and audio amp have a well designed power supply. Unlikely if it is using the noisy rails from the iPhone. I have a discrete headphone amp I use to listen to music from my laptop, with its own, separate well designed power source and high quality amp stage. With Sensheisser Momentums I find it difficult lt to hear a difference from CD quality flac and 24 bit flac.
[doublepost=1474041651][/doublepost]
I only need a quality CD player for home music system and a properly configured laptop to create flac files for all my portable audio devices. I have never bought any music from iTunes.
How is a professionaly manufactured CD with quality booklet that I can use to create all my flac files rubbish.?

Your ears maybe?

There's no arguing that good sound quality depends on several very important aspects and you need to get them all right to produce a quality reproduction of your source material. But impossible? No, not by a long shot. Even something like the Chord Mojo manages to be a good performer with a variety of sources. Be it USB, optical or coax.

Or maybe the Oppo HA-2 which is great with analog from an iPhone. The thing is, nothing is impossible. Getting a good, nay, excellent signal from the Lightning port isn't theory, it's fact. It boils down to what you do with it when it gets outside of the iPhone. And when push comes to shove that's no different than it's ever been. All it does mean is that to get the best of it, we need to replace our existing gear with new.

If you're the sort of person who listened to their music using the old bundled headphones and many people do. Then you're not really affected by the change. You get headphones included and if you're used to the old bundled ones then you never really cared much for the quality of the sound, because lets be honest, they aren't great. Average would just about cover it.

If you care about the sound, someone such as myself. Well I can certainly cope with the available workarounds until such time as I replace my cans with one of the good quality Lighting headphones that already exist, or ones that will come.

Personally I hope Apple put serious time and effort into creating a wireless option (obviously in the future) that can surpass that which exists for physical connections. That I'd love, I've always wanted truly stunning high resolution, completely lossless and interference free wireless cans. And just maybe we'll finally get there now Apple have drawn a line in the sand.

 

[Rigby]

The well-respected German computer magazine c't has measured the audio quality with Apple's Lightning/3.5mm adapter:

http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/iPho...apter-liefert-schlechteren-Sound-3325932.html
(article in German)

One of the results: The dynamic range ("Dynamik") when using the adapter to play 24-bit audio is worse than that of the 3.5mm jack by 4.5dB(A). Overall, c't rates the audio quality as "befriedigend" (satisfactory) while it rated the output on the 3.5mm jack as "gut" (good).

 

[TrueBlou]

The well-respected German computer magazine c't has measured the audio quality with Apple's Lightning/3.5mm adapter:

http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/iPho...apter-liefert-schlechteren-Sound-3325932.html
(article in German)

One of the results: The dynamic range ("Dynamik") when using the adapter to play 24-bit audio is worse than that of the 3.5mm jack by 4.5dB(A). Overall, c't rates the audio quality as "befriedigend" (satisfactory) while it rated the output on the 3.5mm jack as "gut" (good).

Shame on you Apple, tut tut. Well, if that's the case some third party is likely (or rather, definitely going) to take advantage of it and make a better one.

 

[Mac 128]

 

[Gilligan's last elephant]

The well-respected German computer magazine c't has measured the audio quality with Apple's Lightning/3.5mm adapter:

http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/iPho...apter-liefert-schlechteren-Sound-3325932.html
(article in German)

One of the results: The dynamic range ("Dynamik") when using the adapter to play 24-bit audio is worse than that of the 3.5mm jack by 4.5dB(A). Overall, c't rates the audio quality as "befriedigend" (satisfactory) while it rated the output on the 3.5mm jack as "gut" (good).

I presume this is a comparison with the included adapter Apple supply with the iPhone. It is a no-brainer that anything Apple sells for $9 will be absolute cr@p as there will be the cheapest DAC and audio output stage imaginable using the raw power output from the iphone. However a well designed system with proper consideration given to cleaning/isolating the DAC/audio stage from the noisy iPhone power voltage rails will give improvements over the iPhone less than high quality audio via the headphones output. Sony are the phones for good quality headphone jack signal. Followed by HTC.