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Lack of Available Lightning Adapter is Driving Me Insane!

G

gsugators

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 9, 2008
38
0
ATL
I have my Bose Soundock that I cannot use with my iPhone 5 because the adapters are not available.

Its probably been said before, but the adapter should have been included in the box. Since its not included in the box, it should have been available from day 1.

Here I have this $400 accesory and it cannot be used with this phone.

Tim Cook should apologize for that too.

Ok I am done ranting.

You guys have a great weekend!:D
 
gsugators said:
I didn't think of that, what kind of cable do I need to connect it to the headphone port on the back of the Soundock?

Thanks for the idea by the way
Click to expand...

Hit up Radio Shack or Best Buy and get a male/male cable.

I used to use mine in the car before I got a new car with Bluetooth. :)

GL!
 
gsugators said:
I didn't think of that, what kind of cable do I need to connect it to the headphone port on the back of the Soundock?

Thanks for the idea by the way
Click to expand...

It sucks because its not elegant, but male/male headphone cable from radioshack or amazon. Sometimes called 3.5mm plug. At least you get to use your bose.

If you have money, you can spend $30 and add a bluetooth reciever to your bose, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F8Z492TTP-Bluetooth-Music-Receiver/dp/B0047T79VS/ref=pd_cp_e_0

It includes the 3.5mm cable.

Then you can sit on the couch with your phone and control everything there wirelessly.
 
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That isn't really an ideal solution though. The signal through the headphone jack has been altered and amplified. The Bose Soundock will then alter and amplify it again. This will amplify signal gain, tone shaping and distortion from the headphone amplifier.

Sure, it will work in the meantime, where it is at least not a $400 paperweight until the lighting adapter becomes available. But you really want all EQ, amplification, tone-shaping, and volume done by your Soundock, and this will be best accomplished by using the raw line out signal provided by the dock vs the amped feed of the headphone jack.
 
iceterminal said:
hahahahahahhaha You're funny. I'm really hoping this was sarcasm. :D
Click to expand...

It was sarcasm, however I do feel like the adapters should have been thrown in the box in light of millions of accessories being incompatible without one.

----------
SDColorado said:
That isn't really an ideal solution though. The signal through the headphone jack has been altered and amplified. The Bose Soundock will then alter and amplify it again. This will amplify signal gain, tone shaping and distortion from the headphone amplifier.

Sure, it will work in the meantime, where it is at least not a $400 paperweight until the lighting adapter becomes available. But you really want all EQ, amplification, tone-shaping, and volume done by your Soundock, and this will be best accomplished by using the raw line out signal provided by the dock vs the amped feed of the headphone jack.
Click to expand...

So the bluetooth option is inferior from an audio standpoint?
 
i feel ya OP, im waiting on the adapter too since i just installed an ipod adapter for my car several days before the iphone 5 was announced (i wasnt planning on getting it either lolz)
 
I have a Bowers and Wilkins Zeppelin Air Sound dock... Luckily it has AirPlay built into it, but AirPlay isn't perfect all the time, it will cut in and out from time to time, which annoys me.

I hope a silver or black adapter is released, because the white adapter would not look good on the Zeppelin. A Rep from Bowers and Wilkin's told me they may produce a licensed version of the 30-Pin adapter specifically for the Zeppelin Air and Zeppelin Mini.

Zeppelin-Air-642.jpg



My car also has a Factory iPod hook up, which requires an adapter to work because it uses proprietary plug that connects inside of my center console.
 
gsugators said:
So the bluetooth option is inferior from an audio standpoint?
Click to expand...

I am not an expert on Bluetooth, but the best feature of Bluetooth is wireless convenience. From what I understand there is still some signal degradation, but still preferable to the headphone jack. It is still a raw audio signal being transmitted to the receiver vs. a boosted, amplified, EQ enhanced signal such as that provided by a headphone jack. The headphone jack signal is really optimized for the use of headphones only.

I have heard people say there is a difference in sound quality when using Bluetooth, but that it is minimal and likely not noticeable by most.
 
At least you didn't do what I did and order an iPhone 5 from Apple and an adapter in the same order resulting in 'October' delivery, not even a date :(
 
SDColorado said:
I have heard people say there is a difference in sound quality when using Bluetooth, but that it is minimal and likely not noticeable by most.
Click to expand...

I have a Bose SoundLink... Which is a Bluetooth speaker, and it sounds pretty good for what it is. The rechargeable battery makes it even better.

The Bluetooth connection is definitely better than using the 3.5 mm jack. I would buy the Bluetooth Adapter if I was the OP... It is worth the investment IMO, especially if the OP picks up a "3.5 mm to 3.5 mm" cable from a local store. That means it will cost around $10-$15... roughly halfway to the Bluetooth adapter.

And since the OP mentioned it is a $400 Bose, that means it should be the Bose SoundDock Portable. Which would mean it has a rechargeable battery like the SoundLink does, so the OP would have much more functionality out their investment.
 
It definitely is frustrating. My iPod classic crapped out yesterday in one of my cars and an easy solution is to unplug the cable connected to the in dash screen and plug iPhone in for music but I couldn't. Luckily I could stream the music via Bluetooth but for some weird reason, the signal gets spotty at times. Plus I prefer to keep my phone dedicated just for Bluetooth calling. I wonder if they are waiting to release the adapters the same time they release the new iPods. I definitely have my eye on one of the new iPods but I would love to have an adapter readily available.

Secondly, my alarm clock iPhone dock is still the old PIN connector and the only way for me to get the most use out of it is with the adapter. Apple needs to get on the ball with this ASAP.
 
I have a cheap sony alarm clock with the 30 pin dock. I was thinking of getting the adapter for it, but the adapter is so big it looks like it would put stress on the connections.
 
I'm waiting on buying a 5 in the first place until these damn things come out so I definitely feel that same frustration. I want to make sure it works with my car. If it doesn't I'll just hang onto my 4 as my phone instead of selling it. Wish the adapter would come out soon because the value of the 4 is dropping every day lol.
 
SDColorado said:
I have heard people say there is a difference in sound quality when using Bluetooth, but that it is minimal and likely not noticeable by most.
Click to expand...

I have to strongly disagree. Bluetooth doesn't provide the necessary bandwith to transmit the audio signal losslessly. The A2DP spec that bluetooth audio uses acutally recompresses the audio on the fly and transmits it. So you aren't dealing with having the analog signal boosted and amplified, instead you are having the digital signal (which is already compressed) recompressed by as much as 6x to transmit, depending on the device. The difference in quality is very noticeable. Given that, I'd take the headphone jack any day of the week.
 
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