Buy a chipped and NFC reader. Get rid of the mag-stripe one. There, now you won't need the headphone jack.
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Lightning Headphones: Are They Better or Just an Inconvenience?
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Buy a chipped and NFC reader. Get rid of the mag-stripe one. There, now you won't need the headphone jack.
There was no standard connector available that was as good when Lightning was introduced. It was a great idea, micro USB is a terrible port in comparison unless you only need to plug it in once.
Lightning Headphones are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. The 3.5mm jack works just fine for wired headphone. Don't like that? Then use wireless/bluetooth.
Every cable/port/etc has been overly complicated over the years. The headphone jack is one of the only ones left that is still simple and just works. Let's keep it that way.
The only way I'd be fine with a wired headphone that uses something other than a 3.5mm jack is if it was standard across every device (i.e. USB-C). But this is Apple we're talking about. They don't like using open standards.
Every cable/port/etc has been overly complicated over the years. The headphone jack is one of the only ones left that is still simple and just works. Let's keep it that way.
The only way I'd be fine with a wired headphone that uses something other than a 3.5mm jack is if it was standard across every device (i.e. USB-C). But this is Apple we're talking about. They don't like using open standards.
https://squareup.com/emv
They've already got an answer. Bluetooth Low-Energy, and supports NFC cards on top of all that.
Nope - if you're transmitting a digital signal you don't pass it through a DAC; theres no need. You do need to perform the conversion somewhere - but its not unusual in high end home audio systems for the actively used DAC to be much closer to the speaker systems. This allows the audio to be moved from the device to device without impacting quality until its "ready" to be converted.
Even a super cheap CD reader will have perfect audio output as long as it transmits digitally to the next device.
Ummmm..... Please Explain how you charge your phone while using a corded headphone??? do you sit at a desk all day without moving??
You'll only notice the quality difference when listening back-to-back. In day-to-day usage you won't notice anything.
My radio has a 3.5mm. When a radio doesn't have that it has a 5.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. Mac? 3.5mm. Even the ****ing MacBook has a separate 3.5mm jack. If they're moving away from the industry standard they will have to use replace Lightning with USB-C or else everybody will just laugh at them. Proprietary connectors are bad enough already, no need to remove the only industry standard plug on a device when the replacement is a proprietary plug.
My radio has a 3.5mm. When a radio doesn't have that it has a 5.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. Mac? 3.5mm. Even the ****ing MacBook has a separate 3.5mm jack. If they're moving away from the industry standard they will have to use replace Lightning with USB-C or else everybody will just laugh at them. Proprietary connectors are bad enough already, no need to remove the only industry standard plug on a device when the replacement is a proprietary plug.
Okay, I have seen this enough over the past few years to finally say something...
Lightning is a major electrostatic discharge event, and a name coined to imply speed in a data transfer.
Lightening is what bleach does to fabric.
Let's appreciate and respect the difference.
Lightning is a major electrostatic discharge event, and a name coined to imply speed in a data transfer.
Lightening is what bleach does to fabric.
Let's appreciate and respect the difference.
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. In light of these rumors, we've taken a look at several different pairs of Lightning-connected headphones to explore the benefits and drawbacks of an iPhone with no headphone jack.
In the video below, we compare headphones at three price points: the $45 Brightech earphones, the $300 Philips Fidelio M2L headphones, and the $800 Audeze El-8 headphones to offer some insight into how they sound compared to headphones connecting with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Apple has perhaps been preparing for the removal of the headphone jack since 2014, when it introduced a Made for iPhone specification to allow third-party manufacturers to create headphones with Lightning connectors instead of 3.5mm headphone jacks.
While Lightning-connected headphones can only be used with iOS devices and prevent the devices from being charged while in use, two obvious negatives, there are also some significant benefits.
Our iPhones today include a 3.5mm headphone jack with a built-in digital to analog converter, or DAC, for playing music, which is then amplified through a built-in amp. Size and cost constraints associated with the 3.5mm headphone jack limit the quality of the DAC and amp, but in Lightning-connected headphones, the DAC and the amp are built into the headphones themselves instead of the iPhone, allowing manufacturers to control sound quality.
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, so while many of us may be disappointed with the inconvenience of no headphone jack, at least there's the silver lining of better quality audio when using Lightning-connected headphones.
Note: Philips provided MacRumors with the Philips Fidelio M2L headphones free of charge for the purposes of this hands-on test. Audeze provided MacRumors with a loaner set of the El-8 headphones which were returned at the conclusion of testing and the Britech headphones were purchased by MacRumors. No other compensation was received.
Article Link: Lightning Headphones: Are They Better or Just an Inconvenience?
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Yes, they tested the $800 headphones using their included 3.5 jack cable AND the lightning cable and declared the difference to be significant.
One could say that the 3.5mm headphone jack was a solution to a problem that didn't exist...... what was wrong with the 1/4" or 6.35mm jacks? Nothing... times just changed and the forms of the devices with them, and my Walkman was certainly large enough for a full sized quarter incher... hell, my Discman was too.
The biggest difference he described was the volume ... which invalidates the entire listening test. If you don't properly level-match the audio when doing an A/B test, the louder one will always be perceived as "better" even if it isn't.
Quality of the one I bought is pretty good, first I heard about this issue. Will look it up.
Haven't noticed an issue with battery life on the phone while using BT in general, the latter two are of no issue right now at all. By the time intereference and distortion are a problem due to wide usage, better BT standard or others will most likely be out.
My Dell workstation pre-2012 has BT, and in any case, wired connection is already available too just in-case on the headphones.
Thank you. I just edited my post with the correct spelling.Okay, I have seen this enough over the past few years to finally say something...
Lightning is a major electrostatic discharge event, and a name coined to imply speed in a data transfer.
Lightening is what bleach does to fabric.
Let's appreciate and respect the difference.
I'm not the same person you responded to, but I do this as well. When I need to leave my desk I just take my headphones off. I can definitely move around my desk fine , the cables aren't pulled to their max or anything.
So if I do an A/B test with my record player... 1 with the built-in Pre-amp and one through a dedicated, proper Pre-amp... is the dedicated Pre-amp not better because the only difference is more volume?
I mean... being able to actually HEAR something is the entire goal... no?
There needs to be more Lighting connectors. How about 5 of them. One for charging, one for syncing, one for headphones and two more for other accessories.
Doing bluetooth for my headphone needs now. I don't do wires.
Doing bluetooth for my headphone needs now. I don't do wires.
Please explain how you plan to plug in Lightning headphones & a charger at the same time and you'll have your answer.
Utter fanboy BS...
Removing the headphone jack doesn't make sense, even when you consider audio quality.
The DAC/AMP in the iPhone is 'meh' because of component cost, space limitations and heat output. Moving the DAC/AMP to the headphone doesn't lessen these constraints significantly. The lightening headphones may have sounded better than the 3.5mm cable, but an external DAC/AMP (portable or desktop) would blow them out of the water. Oh, and what is going to power these new DAC/AMPs? That's yet another limiting constraint, so you can't improve the sound quality without a significant hit to battery performance. Then you have upgrade issues -- what happens if you want to upgrade the DAC/AMP? You have to buy a new set of headphones, and one that only works with iOS devices.
You know what I like about 3.5mm headphones?
- They work with nearly all sources from various manufacturers
- They do not need to be charged, no batteries to replace
- They are capable of greater sound quality by virtue of external DAC/AMP combinations
- They don't need to be replaced should the DAC/AMP become outdated
And the most obvious point... this entire discussion is completely moot when the source file is anything less than Lossless. The vast majority of iPhone users use compressed files, so you can't retrieve detail that isn't there to begin with.
Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining!
Removing the headphone jack doesn't make sense, even when you consider audio quality.
The DAC/AMP in the iPhone is 'meh' because of component cost, space limitations and heat output. Moving the DAC/AMP to the headphone doesn't lessen these constraints significantly. The lightening headphones may have sounded better than the 3.5mm cable, but an external DAC/AMP (portable or desktop) would blow them out of the water. Oh, and what is going to power these new DAC/AMPs? That's yet another limiting constraint, so you can't improve the sound quality without a significant hit to battery performance. Then you have upgrade issues -- what happens if you want to upgrade the DAC/AMP? You have to buy a new set of headphones, and one that only works with iOS devices.
You know what I like about 3.5mm headphones?
- They work with nearly all sources from various manufacturers
- They do not need to be charged, no batteries to replace
- They are capable of greater sound quality by virtue of external DAC/AMP combinations
- They don't need to be replaced should the DAC/AMP become outdated
And the most obvious point... this entire discussion is completely moot when the source file is anything less than Lossless. The vast majority of iPhone users use compressed files, so you can't retrieve detail that isn't there to begin with.
Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining!
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Distortion when using (2.4) WiFi and Bluetooth audio streams is already very noticeable - both from Phone to Headphones, Phone to PC receiver, Mac to PC, or Mac to Headphones.
Personally I think the 6s was a huge leap forward from the 6, and the 6 was a regression from the 5S (maybe just feeling the limits of 1GB of RAM with iOS 8 on iPhone 6, though -- 5S on iOS 7 was blazing fast in comparison). 6s performance is quite better than the 6, and 3D Touch is fantastic and quite useful. I love my 6s, but was disappointed with the 6.