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Philips Unveils Lightning-Based Fidelio NC1L Noise Canceling Headphones With No Need for Batteries
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DOH!
That's what I get for checking MR right after I get up, BEFORE having my morning coffee.You might be surprised. I use an external DAC/Amp that connects to my iOS devices via camera lightning adapter with Sennheiser HD439s (less than $200 for Headphones + DAC) - mostly with Spotify 320kbps source material. They sound absolutely fantastic, especially modern jazz, progressive rock, and other genres that bring out the best sonic variety and dynamic range. The difference in quality with and without the DAC is significant.
The advantage of these would be the integrated noise cancelling and relative portability (no need to carry a separate DAC). The downside is that you can't change or upgrade the DAC, and you can't (easily) use it with non-lightning devices.
I've always heard that the origins of the term "cans" came from jazz slang, for much the same reasons: in the golden age of jazz, putting on headphones from the era looked a lot like putting those toy tin cans-on-string on your ears.
Regardless of origin, nothing disrespectful has ever been meant by it, and I don't think either British English nor Jazz is anywhere near "ghetto."
Not to be confused with another studio phrase, "in the can," meaning a pre-recorded show is ready to be played or broadcast. Etymology there being that old cylinder sound recordings were literally stored in cans.
Citation needed, I think... unless you count the Apple Watch system, but that looks as if it is tailor made for the watch.
In the case of the iPod dock connector, precisely once in the last 10 years.
C.f. "industry standard" for phones and music players which has gone from Mini-USB and Micro-USB in the same time and will, presumably, be switching to the new USB C connector over the next year or so. I'd call that a no-score draw.
Yes, they've gone through two versions of MagSafe in 10 years - but then everybody else's laptop power supplies are so pathologically proprietary that Apple is actually ahead of the game in only use two different power connectors (with an adaptor available) across its whole laptop range.
No, the only really annoying Apple connector conspiracy is with Mac video connections, of which there have been a bewildering variety. Even then, they've been reasonably stable on MiniDP/Thunderbolt over the last five years or so. I guess that will end with Thunderbolt 3 which sounds like its using different connectors.
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If you think it sounds disrespectful and ghetto just pronounce cans like Cannes in the Festival de Cannes.
A lot of companies used Firewire, and anyone could have made cables or accessories with it. They just didn't. The only product that I can think of that Apple made without USB was the first two generations of the iPod, but those were almost a decade and a half ago.
And what fraction of the capacity of a modern iPhone or iPad is that? And if my noise canceling headphones currently run more than 24 hours on a single AAA battery, I think that's an acceptable current draw.
Agreed. I can get a couple cross-country flights out of a single AAA battery in my noise canceling headphones, so I wouldn't expect these to draw this much power. But seeing as I only ever use my noise canceling headphones on airplanes, these seem problematic because A) You can't charge the phone while the headhones are plugged in, and B) you can't plug these into the plane's in-flight entertainment, which uses a regular headphone jack. Unless there's a different cable you can plug in, but that would eliminate the power supply for the noise canceling. Unless there's an option to use a battery as well, and that would just nullify the point of these.
No we haven't. With portable devices it has changed exactly once in over 10 years. Far less than the competition which has moved all over the place from proprietary to mini-usb to micro-usb (of all different capabilities) to micro-usb paired with a separate charger for some tablets to now USB-C.
Oh get off of it, please. iTunes music sounds very good and very clear, especially for most people. And if YOU are such the "audiophile" a pair of $300 headphones would still be considered midrange at best, considering some of the best such as Grado run well over $1000-$1500. And noise canceling is not something a true "audiophile" is concerned over.
And BTW, when I was referring to "audiophile", I'm referring to someone who feels iTunes just is inadequate for good sound. You say you're not an audiophile but you're judging iTunes music as if it sucks and it's actually quite good.
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I guess if I'm going to spend money on good pair of headphones, I want it to be compatible on all my devices, or as many as possible. The 3.5 jack has been around for years. Why would I want to use something that uses up my lightning connection (ability to charge, etc.) if I don't have to, or that will likely be obsolete if and when Apple replaces the lightning cables with something else - forcing us us to buy all new accessories again.
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USB was a nightmare. Way to many A/B personalities!
Although my favorite was HTC. They modified a normal mini USB cable into proprietary connections by changing the shape of the male and female ends. You could still attach a regular cable, but it was more likely to fall out in use.
Well that is what's handed to us at CES every year. BS technology that SEEMS futuristic at first glance and after a few minutes you realize it's virtually useless.......and sadly it ends up becoming vaporware as the company never intended to release the product. They just needed something that "looked" good to keep up appearances at CES.
An Audiophile is anyone who is enthusiastic about high fidelity reproduction of sound/music. You mention DACs, higher quality downloads and that you can hear the difference. Most important you CARE about the difference. Time to join a support group because, dude, you're an audiophile! #. There's no shame.
P.S. I'm currently pulling a 60' run of 10AWG speaker wire to a pair of KITCHEN speakers. 10 gauge! To the kitchen! The wire costs more than if I bought a Bluetooth speaker and plunked it down on the countertop. I need that support group too!
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Audio engineers and studio musicians have affectionately referred to headphones as 'cans' for over half a century.
In the meantime, what about a Lightning Y-Adapter that allows for charging? Does something like that currently exists?
Cool. I was just thinking about something like this!
I wonder if Apple will ditch the 3.5mm jack in favor for two lightning ports (headphones + charging) or go completely with wireless headphones in the future (because we all know how they like to trade stuff for thinner products.)
Same for the mute switch (CC toggle).
I wonder if Apple will ditch the 3.5mm jack in favor for two lightning ports (headphones + charging) or go completely with wireless headphones in the future (because we all know how they like to trade stuff for thinner products.)
Same for the mute switch (CC toggle).
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I didn't say anything about competition- that's injecting some new info to spin the topic to make Apple look better. What I did say was that we have a perfectly functional, fine, ubiquitous standard that "we" want replaced with a narrow, iDevice-only standard that comes with the complication of charging through the very same port.
As to the insinuation of "once" answers, just do a search for "apple proprietary connectors" and start clicking. Some articles do try to spin that Apple competitors have more proprietary connectors too but that's also missing my point. In some cases, it's like Apple is going out of it's way to make a proprietary connector for no obvious benefit (other than adapter, cables & licensing profits for Apple).
Even within this very thread, you have people excited about using this set of headphones with their Apple laptop, only to be shot down because it lacks the proprietary port. Then you have others chiming in about getting an adapter to make it work rather than questioning why we need to bother with yet another narrow connector on the end of a $300 pair of headphones.
If it brings some real consumer utility or benefit, great! What are those benefits over the same with the established standard? So far all I've seen is that it can suck it's energy from the iDevices battery making the phones marginally smaller than those that might use a AAA battery or similar. Is that worth $300 and locking into lightning-only uses?
Obviously I have some phones with the standard jack. I use them with iDevices AND Macs... and a variety of other audio hardware. How? Because just about everything has that standard jack. Mine do use a AAA battery for the noise reduction but that means they won't burn that same energy from the battery in my iDevice. And (IMO) an AAA battery is not some great burden to carry around.
You guys seeing this as some kind of wonderful thing... good for you. If I wanted these particular headphones, I'd much rather buy a variant with a standard jack. And if I felt compelled to hook it to an iDevice through the lightning port, I'd rather find an adapter for that rather than being locked into $300 headphones usable ONLY with Apple iDevices.
I own a ton of very expensive headphones so you won't see me jumping on the bandwagon of a new standard for this any time soon, however, at the same time I understand that being open to change is necessary if we ever want to advance. Most users are like you. They don't want change. Fortunately there are visionary people who don't agree and as a result we aren't all stuck still using serial rs232 as our communications protocol. Just as there are advantages both potential and immediate to lightning versus USB, the same is true of lightning vs. 3.5mm jacks. It remains to be seen what comes of it, but having an actively powered noise canceling headphone with a discrete DAC and amp is a pretty dang good start for the first try.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I welcome change but I want there to be CONSUMER benefits of such changes. I get how Apple can benefit through licensing and adapter sales. How does this benefit consumers?
What are they? Will this increase the quality of the music that is played back? Is there some hidden utility I'm not seeing?
Please someone, enlighten us on these big music-listening benefits that override the conflict of this also being the charging port.