Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

drumstr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 13, 2016
24
12
I am very impressed so far with my iPhone 7 and the audio quality seems to have improved when using lightning earbuds vs old 3.5 mm earbuds on 6s. I have yet to try the 3.5 mm adapter but I'm happy with lightning earbuds. Yes I know the earbuds are not best for quality compared to my recording mixing headphones I use but they are great portable sound and fit my ears great. Place eq on rock setting and enjoy
 
  • Like
Reactions: AppleWarrior
Can't really hear a difference between the "native" headphone jack on my 6 and the Lightning-to-3,5mm adapter on my 7 tbh. Sounds pretty much the same (= fantastic) to me. Headphones used for comparison were Sennheiser Momentums, Sennheiser IE80 and Beats Solo 2.
 
I just watched Pocket Now Daily and they said the quality is almost the same and/or worse. Can you say what it is specifically that sounds better about it? I'm curious simply because I love the ear buds but would hate to get degraded quality.
 
iPhone 7 adapter-out is definitely noisier compared to my iPhone 6's headphone-out. Tested with my Campfire Audio Andromedas.
 
iPhone 7 adapter-out is definitely noisier compared to my iPhone 6's headphone-out. Tested with my Campfire Audio Andromedas.


To be honest I haven't done an in depth comparison and will do one soon when I have the time. My older pairs of earbuds were not new and is most likely the reason why I feel there was an improvement right away. Just watched that video and says slight degrading of quality compared to 6s and only 16 bit output?? Even so I am a happy customer so far still.
 
Last edited:
To be honest I haven't done an in depth comparison and will do one soon when I have the time. My older pairs of earbuds were not new and is most likely the reason why I feel there was an improvement right away. Just watched that video and says slight degrading of quality compared to 6s and only 16 bit output?? Even so I am a happy customer so far still.

I didn't need to compare them side by side. The 7 exhibited audibly more hiss and it's detectable bordering on bothersome. That said, the Andromedas are one of the most sensitive IEMs you can buy on the market.
 
I didn't need to compare them side by side. The 7 exhibited audibly more hiss and it's detectable bordering on bothersome. That said, the Andromedas are one of the most sensitive IEMs you can buy on the market.


Point taken but I've only used included earbuds on my phone. My iPhone has always been used for music playback at work and gym with earbuds or jaybirds. At home I use my MacBook Pro with my audio technicas and sennheisers.
 
True..... gotta love the future.....compressed audio...

Yes, but IP7 cuts high frequency ( look at frequency response near 20KHz ) so the compressed audio will be more compressed... But maybe people cannot hear this difference...
 
Last edited:
I didn't need to compare them side by side. The 7 exhibited audibly more hiss and it's detectable bordering on bothersome. That said, the Andromedas are one of the most sensitive IEMs you can buy on the market.

I'll give it a second listen with the Momentums when I'm at home and see if I can confirm this.
 
Another reason audiophiles have in not getting an iPhone.
yes but Audiophiles don't use phones. It was just a consideration because i read about yellow tint + bright issue + Hiss noise so just added frequency response narrower... :cool:
 
hmm. if they don't use phones then how do they play their music while being mobile?

there are other electronics from FIIO, Sony etc... But as i said in my previous post that's no the point, here we don't speak about audiophiles. Just comparison between IP6S and IP7. Hope this time is more clear...
 
The popular concept says Lighting is better because it's digital and digital is more modern than analog.

Modern is better than "ancient."

People believe any digital audio is better than the best analog.

It follows that people similarly believe Lightning Earpods sound better than stereo 3.5mm male Earpods. (Or any other brand earbuds/headphones, one with a Lightning connector, the other with 3.5mm).

Placebo effect.

It's reminecent of when 128kbps MP3s (and AAC when iTunes started) were lauded as "CD quality" and people would go around repeating it as-if it were gospel, unaware that CD audio is lossless and uncompressed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sunking101
This may shade some light.

That is a great video, and explains sound quality in a way that is easily digestible for the uninitiated. I can't verify it's authenticity, so I am waiting for other reviewers to do the same type of comparisons.

I was one od those upset they removed the headphone jack because I have not had great experiences with Bluetooth either in my car or headphones. I am not an audiophile but can clearly hear The lightening to USB connection to my car stereo however works great so my main issue was the possible degradation while using regular headphones.
This may shade some light.



When I first heard they were removing the head phone jack, I got really upset because I have never had a good experience with bluetooth sound quality either in my car or with my phone. Honestly, I am not overly in love with the DAC on my iPhone, but I don't use headphones enough to warrant the investment. in an external one. Even though I was one of those railing against the removal of the port, I held out hope that Apple would deliver a higher quality listening experience to go along with their money grab for accessories. If this video is correct, I think people will realize that sound quality with the dongle, will be poorer than sound quality with headphones that use the lightning port. And they will improve sound quality for bluetooth using their bluetooth products "effectively" herding people in their proprietary direction. Like the video said, the loss in sound quality is not stark, but enough to acknowledge the difference.

They video really did a good job of explaining sound quality and how its transmitted through the phone, dongle, and headphones.
 
I am very impressed so far with my iPhone 7 and the audio quality seems to have improved when using lightning earbuds vs old 3.5 mm earbuds on 6s. I have yet to try the 3.5 mm adapter but I'm happy with lightning earbuds. Yes I know the earbuds are not best for quality compared to my recording mixing headphones I use but they are great portable sound and fit my ears great. Place eq on rock setting and enjoy


Placebo effect mate. When they launch 7S you will think suddenly 7 sounds "terrible" lolz
 
Sound is great. Fortunately, I have not experienced this hissing sound a lot of people are complaint about, and I hope I don't.
 
That is a great video, and explains sound quality in a way that is easily digestible for the uninitiated. I can't verify it's authenticity, so I am waiting for other reviewers to do the same type of comparisons.

I was one od those upset they removed the headphone jack because I have not had great experiences with Bluetooth either in my car or headphones. I am not an audiophile but can clearly hear The lightening to USB connection to my car stereo however works great so my main issue was the possible degradation while using regular headphones.



When I first heard they were removing the head phone jack, I got really upset because I have never had a good experience with bluetooth sound quality either in my car or with my phone. Honestly, I am not overly in love with the DAC on my iPhone, but I don't use headphones enough to warrant the investment. in an external one. Even though I was one of those railing against the removal of the port, I held out hope that Apple would deliver a higher quality listening experience to go along with their money grab for accessories. If this video is correct, I think people will realize that sound quality with the dongle, will be poorer than sound quality with headphones that use the lightning port. And they will improve sound quality for bluetooth using their bluetooth products "effectively" herding people in their proprietary direction. Like the video said, the loss in sound quality is not stark, but enough to acknowledge the difference.

They video really did a good job of explaining sound quality and how its transmitted through the phone, dongle, and headphones.
I didn't get the 7 and the 2 major reasons being removal of audio jack and the major upgrade being only on the plus model.

I have genuine usecase of using the headphones while charging the phone and also can't carry around the plus model. It's too big and inconvenient for me.
 
I haven't used a headphone jack on an iPhone since I had a 4s. I'm happy they got rid of it. All that little hole did on my iPhone was collect dust. I've been a subscriber to Spotify since day 1. I stream music everyday from my iPhone. My house. Office. Car. At home to a Bose Bluetooth speaker. In my car to a 14 speaker Bose surround system came like that from factory. I drive an Infiniti Q50 BTW. Anyways I'm content with Bluetooth audio. It's only going to get better with Bluetooth 5 being deployed soon. Anyways happy my iPhone 7 doesn't have a hole that collect dusts now and I need a q tip to clean it :)
 
This is the above-mentioned video, I guess. Quite interesting!
Very good video.

I think he's off in some marks, though. Apple is knowingly making a slight reduction in sound quality to shift to a wireless future. There are trade offs now, sure, but in a few years this won't be an issue.

Apple never said that sound quality was the reason for removal, they said it was removed because it served one purpose, took up space, and made it harder to waterproof their design.

Also, I'm sure Apple did this now to get ready for next years phone. Apple doesn't want all the negative press next year, when they completely redesign the phone.
 
Last edited:
Here's this from a German blog, which seems infinitely more detailed than this confusing video:

https://translate.googleusercontent...2.html&usg=ALkJrhhxPgCxr5ncqQAXc4M9wKD3CZXgLA

http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/iPho...apter-liefert-schlechteren-Sound-3325932.html

29641769451_3c14275294_o.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: magbarn
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.