"Waterproofing" is a marketing gimmick. Being able to plug industry standard headphones into a phone is a necessity/requirement. To sacrifice the latter for the former would be a huge misstep
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iPhone 7 May Feature Thinner, Waterproof Body With No Headphone Jack and Wireless Charging
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Apple is plain retarded. I have over 15k euros invested in high end Stax and Sennheiser headphones and the amps are being connected to all use 3.5mm jack. If you tell me that lightning port offers better quality than my equipment you must be brainwashed by all the marketing gimmick. No offence...
Welcome to MacRumors, where "Hi-Q Audio" are last-generation Beats and 256AAC...
I have HD800's, HE-560's, and LCD-2F's as my "hi-end" headphones (driven by Violectric and Chord), but don't really use them with my iPhone. My go-to phones with my iPhone are IE800's and SE535's (couldn't justify the costs of the SE846), and both work more than reasonably out of the 3.5 jack. I suspect most here would think that you and I are insane for spending $500€+ on headphones, and have no clue how far that rabbit-hole really goes or how much improvement can be had...
NOT having the option to plug in usual headphones is (for the first time) a real reason for me not to buy the next gen iPhone. If they ship it with an adapter: okay. But as far as we know Apple they will be happy to sell you a € 25,- overpriced lightning to 3,5mm connector. I just like to have the convenience to plug in non battery powered headphones when I want to. The discussion about whether bluetooth headsets are good or bad is irrelevant.
You can already use headphones with Built in DAC, check out Sony's MDR-1aDAC they already use the lightning connector digital out (and are SPECTACULAR), and if you want to use other headphones there are external DAC/ Headphone Amp combos as well that will already work with the iPhone over the lightning connector. One thing I think you are forgetting is that they won't want to alienate people who won't spend money on fancy headphones wiht integrated DAC so there will have to be some sort of simple adaptor from lightning to 3.5mm which means they need to accommodate analogue audio out via the lightning connector, with means the integrated DAC and amp must be retained. In which case many lightning equipped headphones will likely be entirely passive bypassing any quality improvements you might be expecting.
What is this obsession with thinner phones!
I want a better battery, quick charging and a wireless charging option!
I want a better battery, quick charging and a wireless charging option!
Nice. I have an HD800 and a Beyerdynamic T5p as my main headphones. I used to own a Violectric V200...replaced it with a Sennheiser HDVA600. I use my Vsonic GR07 or my Aurisonic Rockets with my iPhone.
So the question is, are you going to stick with Apple if they remove the jack, or will you find an alternative? I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
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The integrated DAC will be retained as long as the iPhone has a speaker. They could replace the high-quality DAC they use now with a craptastic model though if all it will do is power the internal speaker.
that's not why i want it, i want it because it'll be easier to be universal and share chargers this way. though apple will probably make some ridiculous protocol that no other contact chargers will have
Wait, what? Why do people who have headphones with internal DACs need a lIghtning adapter that outputs analogue audio? If they don't have a Lightning connector, then they would need a custom USB to Lightning adapter for instance.
Apple has to keep an internal DAC for the built-in speaker, earpiece, and microphone. But it can be a much lower quality one. So even if they did this, it wouldn't get rid of the DAC, which is not very large in the first place. And Lightning is certainly capable of switching two of the 9 pins to analogue audio, but I'm not sure I follow the rationale here. One of the big complaints about the 5c and 5s Lightning docks was that Apple was charging $29 for them (they now sell for $39 plastic & $49 for a metal clad one). And the inter-webs exploded with wails of price gouging, because it was the same price as the iPhone 4 30-pin dock. The reason the price was the same, was because it now include a DAC for the external 3.5mm audio port. And to their credit, not only did Apple not charge more for it, its as good or better than the built-in DAC of the 5S. Which bodes well for the cost of the 3.5mm adapters to come. Nevertheless, Apple included a pass-through audio jack that most everybody claimed they didn't use. Indeed, I would wager that's true. So why not charge less, and leave it off? Or, given the abilities of Lightning, Apple could have enabled the dock to automatically switch two pins of the Lightning connector to analogue audio, and simply make it a pass through jack. Of course that dock is also used for data transfer, which means potential compatibility issues with future needs, whether or not Apple was utilizing all 9 pins at the time.
So my feeling is that if Apple didn't enable that kind of connectivity then, they aren't likely to do it now.
That said, the new Lightning jacks have 17 pins. Which means there's a lot more pins open to dedicate to audio, but only on new equipment, which would do nothing for legacy Lightning connectors, which wouldn't necessarily help their cause. And again, I'd argue Apple wouldn't do this anyway to preserve future compatibility.
But the bottom line really is this: No matter what Apple did, it would require an adapter. So given the choice, is the customer going to choose a slightly less expensive set of headphones to be used with a passive adapter that's likely to cost them the difference anyway, and possibly lower quality audio, or a more expensive set of Lightning headphones without the need for an adapter? And if you're talking about a more expensive set of digital headphones with a different digital connector, then a simple Lightning to USB converter for instance is going to cost about the same as a passive connector anyway.
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This is what I envision it would look like no big deal.
That might be a little optimistic. However, here's an actual one that's pretty slim which can definitely be improved on.
You seriously asked for an iPhone thinner than 6 and 6s ? This reminds me a bit the macbook threads where people claimed they wanted a thinner macbook air to justify apple releasing a laptop without ports.
Regardless, I guess the word "nobody" I've used should be replaced with the word "majority". The majority of people want a longer battery life since everyday charging is by far the most annoying part of users experience.
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Apple used to think like that. I highly doubt, though, that they respect this principle lately. The latest rumor for that matter seems to justify my guess (if proved to be true, of course). They are going to offer lightning earpods and sell the wireless ones. So, if you want to charge and use the device at the same time, you'll have to pay for a feature that was there out of the box on the previous models.
Other companies achieve water resistance without dropping 3.5 jack, if you want more battery don't make the phone thinner it doesn't need to be!
Better audio quality....
LOL LOL LOL
....from your MP3's! Bahahahaaaa
Well when digital audio came out everyone said it was better than analog YMMV I say bring back the tape hiss. People tend to forget what analog sounded like.
Why will you? The headphones you are using for the phone you currently own won't magically stop working just because Apple bring out a new iPhone.
Your argument about forgetting or losing the adapter is a red herring - you could just as easily forget or lose your headphones.
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And now presenting:
"Your Only Option"
You've lost me.
Are you saying that cables with 3.5mm jacks on the end of them magically never, ever do that?
I wouldn't call the existing DAC "high quality" it's already kind of craptastic, but my point is to enable cheap easy use of existing headphones apple would want to enable analogue out via lightning so there could be cheap simple little adaptors for Lightning > 3.5mm
I listen to most of my music in the car so high end audiophile quality is not a must. Ease of connection and minimal wires is a must.
Just because it is an old way doesn't make it better.
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I don't have a problem. I use bluetooth with my iPhone all the time. In fact I backed the Dash headphones referred to in the article and should get delivery of them shortly.
My point is that I don't need the 3.5mm headphone jack so if it is removed it is not an issue for me. I would be completely hapy with the removal of the jack and that space either used for something else or eliminated entirley - for example to help reduce the size of the bezel. A smaller bezel and no headphone jack would be great for me.
What I don't need are condescending comments about the quality of the music I listen to.
My point is that I don't need the 3.5mm headphone jack so if it is removed it is not an issue for me. I would be completely hapy with the removal of the jack and that space either used for something else or eliminated entirley - for example to help reduce the size of the bezel. A smaller bezel and no headphone jack would be great for me.
What I don't need are condescending comments about the quality of the music I listen to.
I don't care. I am not going to be using their phone for my music anymore, anyways. I have a FiiO X5ii that I use.
The only problem I have is that I people will either need to use the included crappy Apple ear pods, or Apple licensed lightning headphones, or carry an adapter to use their device with their favorite headphones (which will get lost and probably cost $29 to replace).
So it sounds like you would benefit from an extended battery case. With that in mind, instead of an adapter, how about something you can really use.
What if Apple offers a 3.5mm port integrated into this?
