Because it won't be thinner and people won't be forced to buy the same stupid stuff over and over and over and over again. .
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iPhone 7 and the Audiophile Case For Lightning Headphones
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Because it won't be thinner and people won't be forced to buy the same stupid stuff over and over and over and over again. .
According to this very extensive (and empirical) review, iPhone DACs are quite capable:
"...the audio output of the iPhone 6 Plus is now so improved that it sounds and measures about as well as professional reference DACs like the Benchmark DAC1 HDR, and better than many consumer DACs."
Review Data: Audio Performance
Conclusions: Compared (scroll down to the "Audio performance compared" section)
"...the audio output of the iPhone 6 Plus is now so improved that it sounds and measures about as well as professional reference DACs like the Benchmark DAC1 HDR, and better than many consumer DACs."
Review Data: Audio Performance
Conclusions: Compared (scroll down to the "Audio performance compared" section)
Not really true. For example, they didn't abandon USB when they introduced Firewire and later Thunderbolt.
Just when everyone's hardware will be Lightning compatible, Apple will change to another connection. Its all a conspiracy to get everyone to replace all their hardware every several years. I'm on an iPhone 5 right now and am waiting for the 7. If my Bose noise reducing headphones require an adaptor, I'll just get the 6."Sure, there'll be an adaptation period where adapters will be necessary, but over time Apple's Lightning and the more universal USB-C standard will take over from the 3.5mm connector."
So who is going first?
I'm holding out for a re-introduction of the iPhone 4 (The best designed iPhone ever) with a beast of a battery and a glorious 3.5mm port with USB-C.
Sadly I think I'll be waiting a while.
Personally I don't use the headphone jack, in the car I use my car's USB to lightning cable to play music on the car speakers. But anyway, I think Apple will include a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter that you can just keep attached to your headphones the whole time, then just plug them into the Lightning port as you would have done with a 3.5mm jack.
Poop to persuade the gullible who listen to poop.
According to some rumors, Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will not include a headphone jack, requiring headphones to connect to the devices using a Lightning connector.
Last month, MacRumors considered the case for and against Lightning headphones by comparing the audio performance of existing brands at three different price points: the $45 Brightech earphones, the $300 Philips Fidelio M2L headphones, and the $800 Audeze El-8 headphones.
In our tests, all of the Lightning-connected headphones, from the $45 pair to the $800 pair, sounded better than comparable headphones connected to an iPhone using the 3.5mm jack.
Yesterday, The Verge took a closer look at the brand in our highest price bracket, the Audeze El-8, alongside the company's Sine headphones, and argued its own reasons for why adopting Lightning for audio should be considered a welcome and essential advance for serious listeners.
The review makes the general case that Lightning headphones have the potential to hand crucial audio reproduction tasks back to the headphone maker, relegating the iPhone to the role of simple digital source. For high-end listening enthusiasts, this is said to be a potential game-changer, although the impact on an iPhone 7's battery life obviously remains unclear.
In purely sonic terms, The Verge notes how the Audeze audiophile cans sound "dramatically better when exploiting the all-digital connection with their so-called Cipher Lightning cable", which houses its own digital signal processor, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and headphone amplifier.
"If all future Lightning headphones are designed as thoughtfully and in the same integrated manner as Audeze's, then we'll have nothing to fear from the future," says The Verge. "These Lightning headphones are the real deal: good enough to make me forget all about the 3.5mm jack."
The review continues in a breakdown of general arguments for using Lightning for serious listening enjoyment, the first being better hi-fi portability. This is based on the idea that the integrated smartphone DACs and amps which traditional 3.5mm jack headphones rely on are inferior to dedicated external components.
Given that the latter are usually bulky and inconvenient in their own right, if Lightning headphones can integrate these components into the connector cable, the trade-off should be far superior sound quality.
The second argument for Lightning is more power: the reviewer notes that the iPhone's integrated circuitry is among the best on the market, but it still lacks the power to drive high-end cans to their full potential.
The article also highlights the fact that the Audeze iOS app gives exceptional control over headphone frequency response, and saves user settings in the firmware housed in the Cipher cable.
Finally, The Verge argues that the growing trend towards more digital and less analog "make(s) the classic 3.5mm jack redundant" and positions Lightning alongside wireless protocols as the future drivers of audio innovation.
The iPhone 7 is expected to be launched in September, when we should find out just what's in store for audio enthusiasts and regular listeners alike. You can read The Verge's original article here, and be sure to catch MacRumors' video, Lightning Headphones: Are They Better or Just an Inconvenience?
Article Link: iPhone 7 and the Audiophile Case For Lightning Headphones
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Don't know about conspiracy but anyone should flip up their iDevice now and look at the current level of "thin" vs. the boundaries of the Lightning jack "as is." I can't do that myself without anticipating the new thinner, Lightning 2 jack just a few generations away at most.
It's not thinness that is driving a "potential" shift away from the 3.5mm jack, but rather better quality audio delivery. Frankly, I don't have a dog in this "supposed" fight, as I've already shifted away from wired headphones and headsets completely. I believe Airplay or BT is the future and wired headsets are a legacy technology that has survived longer than they need. The 3.5mm jack is clearly not the be-all-end-all for how to move sound from device to headphones. In fact, it's gotten to the point where it is one of the weak points in sound/data transfer, given it's spring loaded bent wire and post connection. And as testers have noted, the Lightning connected headphones do in fact sound significantly better than the older 3.5mm connected headphones.
Apple is the company that popularised USB, so it started as their baby anyway. It just outgrew them.
My Sennheisers connect via USB, 3.5, and BT4. The quality of the USB connection is beyond compare. People will change their tunes once they get introduced to the pure, completely digital and unchanged music artists intended."Sure, there'll be an adaptation period where adapters will be necessary, but over time Apple's Lightning and the more universal USB-C standard will take over from the 3.5mm connector."
So who is going first?
Because when you send data through the air there are interferences. Period. Those interferences effect the audio quality, primarily latency, but other factors also. Now if all you have used are Apple earbuds, you probably don't have the ears to be able to detect it. But others can. You may also not be able to detect the changes if you are in a noisy environment, hence for a lot of people it does not matter.
I for one, would be happy with anything that provides better audio and is reasonably cost effective. If we get people used to listening to quality audio, the music industry will be forced to improve its mastering (which is largely crap today). Once you listen to well produced music on a good system, you don't want to go back. Of course none of that matters if you all you do is use music as background noise while you do other things.
Music can be truly enjoyable and emotional when listened to in the correct environment and it is an experience that everyone should have at least once.
I've upgraded my iphone every year since 3GS. I will not upgrade to 7 if there is no 3.5 headhone jack. I don't want to carry around any bulky adapter and I want to keep my 800$ worth Headphones and earphones. It's the worst I heard from Apple for many years. It's not progressive at all but much more backward propriatory thinking! Just like in the 90ies with Apple jacks for keyboard, printer and network connectivity. IOS is not dominant in the audio and hifi market and lightning will never be the market standard for hifi audio connectivity. Apple is on the way into a shrinking pseudo elite marketsegment. And this time there will be not creative professionals to stay with the brand.
That has nothing to do with the argument though. I'd say the 3.5mm jack is at least as ubiquitous a standard as USB.
It is not 800$ for one headphone. Its for 2 closed hifi headphones at the places I live and I share them with my family. 1 set of inears for travel and 1 at work and 1 for work out. This stuff is not crazy hifi but high quality. And you hear real difference even with 256kbs on iphone compared to cheap stuff or even less cheap but bass heavy beats. And then there is my Hifi-Amp where the headphones work perfectly too. And it has no lightning port and never will have one even when I would upgrade it. Lightning is NO hifi standard and NEVER will be. Apple is a niche in that market. The tail won't wag the dog.
********, pure and simple. The quality of audio is NOT dependent on what kind of physical connector is used, it has to do with the D/A converter, and the device that actually moves to make sound. One can only imagine that with the lightening setup, the D/A converter has been moved to the headphones, getting power from the Lightening cable… Past that, utter BS
According to this survey, most of Apple's customers don't care about losing the headphone jack.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/16/01...o.ask.apple.shoppers.what.they.thought.131986
The post you were replying to was flawed anyway -- When the iMac came out, ADB, Serial AND SCSI were all replaced by USB, there was no phasing out of the old technology. Likewise on the PowerBook Firewire which replaced SCSI with Firewire too. Apple absolutely abruptly removes ports without warning.
Probably not. I can't imagine a scenario where Apple removes the headphone jack from the iPhone, includes a pair of Lightning earbuds, and then require them to use an adapter in order to use them on their Macs. My bet is all new Macs refreshed after the iPhone drops the headphone jack will add Lightning.
Not necessarily. That's why most wireless technologies (and wired for that matter) have error correction built into the protocol. Bluetooth is not perfect, it's being stretched beyond what it was originally designed to do. For transmission of audio Airplay is better.
[doublepost=1465417308][/doublepost]There is a lot of raging on this thread over something we don't even know is definitely going to happen. I can understand the arguments, I just don't think they're compelling enough to throw your toys out of the pram.
But look at it this way, IF it does happen you can strop all you want but at that point you're going to have to make a decision on whether you're going to leave the Apple eco-system. But stomping your feet up and down is just going to end up wasting your breath.
TLDR. Don't buy an iPhone without a 3.5mm jack if you feel that strongly about it.
apple engineers seem to have a "thin" fetish. I'd prefer a few millimeters of thickness and the 3.5 mm jack and perhaps better battery life.
Over the years I've collected a bunch of headphones/earbuds. Must I scrap them?or invest in a little interface box.It may be my last iPhone upgrade. Time to look at options!
Over the years I've collected a bunch of headphones/earbuds. Must I scrap them?or invest in a little interface box.It may be my last iPhone upgrade. Time to look at options!
All good points. Apple has not released Lightning Beats headphones, likely because they didn't want to do it prematurely before they were able to roll out a complete solution to the problem.
Basically most arguments against proceed from the perspective that they are the first to think of these things, rather than presume that Apple being the consummate problem solver they always have been, has thought about this from every perspective. Can't charge and listen at the same time -- check. BT audio has problems -- check. Adapters are bulky -- check. Can't use Lightning with your Mac -- check.
Apple has almost certainly thought of all of these problems and worked out a unified solution, one that may sting a little at first for some, but otherwise will solve all of these problems for most. That's why they haven't piece-mealed it by releasing their own Lightning headsets. Apple has something exciting planned for wireless audio, and it won't be the same existing technology everyone keeps referencing as a benchmark. Lightning will likewise be utilized in a way that other manufacturers haven't, in part because Apple hasn't announced all of their plans yet -- which 100% typical of Apple; hey always save the best goodies for themselves.
Lol @ "bulky" adapter.
Soooooooo... if it's included, & so small you won't even notice it on the end of your phones, will you then retract this preemptive rant??
That is all rumors are about: Things you don't know for sure. And future will proof right or wrong. And we will have to make a decision that's for sure. And that is why these discussions help to prepare for such a decision.
My decision as of today would be stay with apple stop further investment and take a really close look at android. And that is for me and my family with 4 macbookPros one macmini server and 4 iPhones and 4 iPads. And tons of stuff from iTunes. But Apple is about to lose me. And I'm sure I won't be alone. And who will be won with that kind of product design? They will lose even more market share. And that is another point in favor of my decision.
Thinner does not equal innovation. And less is not always more.
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No way! Apple moved to USB because it was already the dominant market standard. They were rather late. And it was only because their strategy was in an dead end then. Who remembers Gil Amelio then. Steve saved them and one point in his turnaround was opening Apple to market standards and focussing on key products. But times are changing and so does Apple. But sometimes history repeats and so I see Apples product line getting more and more confused. And even worse they are getting more and more propriatory and closed.