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Possible iPhone 7 Headphone Jack Depicted in New Image
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Because thats not how I imagine it'll be at all - it'll be something like the size of the current lightning plug, which already has chips inside for charging that could be (if even required) be replaced with a DAC (though I think that'll be be controlled by the phone) and then it'll be a few inches long and have a female mini jack connection.
Thats not at all any different to what my current headphones look like, the headphone plug on my Sennheisers already sticks out for the phone further than a lightning plug would and in terms of misplacing, thats no more likely that misplacing my in-ear headphones as i'll just leave it connected to them, simple.
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You use wireless headphones if you really want to do that.
As a musician I can tell you that the world outside of "us" tech aware people is still a lot analog. My guitar has analog output and I can assume it is here to stay for another 30, 50 or even 100 years. I do have to admit though that I use the iRig interface to connect my analog guitar to my Mac, iPhone or iPad. Yet I would never buy an "digital" guitar.
The same way you add a string of Christmas Tree lights to one already plugged into the outlet.
I think it would be smart to save the removal of the headphone jack for the iPhone 8, which will purportedly have a dramatic redesign. Apple needs to offer something to help offset the backlash. If the recently leaked schematics for the iPhone 7 are authentic, the iPhone 7 is going to offer very little to excite consumers. Better to play it safe this time around.
There will come a day when your guitar will have both analogue and digital outputs. Digital would be a lot quieter and cleaner on stage over long cable runs, as well as in studios, especially when dealing with digital interfaces. And it will be absolutely no different than the guitar you have now.
There's already devices you can plug into your guitar and amp that will do this, wirelessly even. No reason to redesign the guitar itself.
unfortunately that just isn't true... my point is people and businesses don't just move onto things that are possible that are better unless someone steps up and breaks the lazy.
It's not as clean -- your analogue pickup is being converted outside the guitar, rather than at the source. And the guitar doesn't have to be redesigned, just add an ADC at the pickup, and run and additional digital output on the same wire path.
The irony here is that you're saying a dongle is preferred over a built-in output. Not sure your position on the headphone situation, but it's the exact situation analogue headphone users want to avoid. I'd think an extra dongle on a guitar, especially a performance guitar would be something to avoid. A wireless dongle has been known to elicit howls of pain around here as well.
You're assuming there's something better about keeping the signal digital further up the chain though. Given that our ears can only process analog sound, that means that somewhere along the chain, there has to be a DAC to convert the digital signal back to analog for us to hear it. Headphones are a mature technology that have adapted very easily to cell phones, so no real advantage in making them do the DAC processing instead of the phone.
There is one headphone that's making waves with its lightning cable, the Audeze Sine. It's a $450 headphone without the lightning cable, and $500 with (or $80 separately for the cable by itself, but the cable only works with that one headphone). The biggest advantage that this has is there is an app for these headphones that let you EQ them, and the EQ info is stored in the cable, so when you plug it into another phone, the EQ choices remain. Do you think that's worth another $50 on top the price of the headphone AND you have to change the cable if you want to use it with literally any other device, including Macbooks?
Now, I'm not saying that lightning cables with external DACs are automatically bad. But they certainly don't seem like a solution that is more convenient for the consumer, and it's certainly more expensive.
This also doesn't take into account another segment of the user base: Those who use the analog jack to listen to music in their car. I do that all the time, and it cost me a few bucks to get a cheap Amazon analog 3.5mm cable to run from my phone to my AUX port in my car. If Apple removes the headphone jack, I'll either need to buy a much more expensive cable that has a DAC in it, and lose the ability to charge the phone while driving, or buy an expensive external DAC like a Dragonfly, and still lose the ability to charge my phone, or buy an adapter that you know will be overpriced, still have a bad DAC in it, and maybe get to charge my phone. Or I could spend even more money than all of those solutions and install a completely new stereo that offers bluetooth compatibility and get even worse sound for more money.
So again, where's the benefit for the consumer? I see lots of benefits for Apple and other manufacturers, but zero for me.
Or it could be that we're all getting worked up over a rumor and Apple never really was getting rid of the port to begin with. Someone over in Apple HQ might be getting great laugh at us all as they read this thread.
This maybe the case, in which case the entire mobile industry is in trouble, as user upgrade cycles will fall. As to chasing the unicorn, I I never said I was chasing it. I stated that some kind of wow factor would be required to off-set the loss of value the audio jack gives me. I'm perfectly happy with the functionality I currently have with my phone, I just object to it being reduced.
Distortion field mathematics: storm in the tea cup about Apple removing just-another-port, followed by another storm in the teacup about Apple not removing just-another-port, doesn't cancel the storm, it makes just 2 storms...
Hell yeah! And a RF blaster (is that a thing) for garage door, lights, sockets. Put the hardware there and let the app makers make the best of it.
And I want a QR reader in the camera app, so I don't have to have an extra app cluttering my phone for the sake of a few lines of code.
And stop trying to have the thinnest phone, they are thin enough. Battery life is more important... don't go any thinner.
And let me delete the pointless (for most people) stocks app!
And I want a pony!
There's so many misconceptions here, I don't know where to start.
1) Having the DAC conversion and amp closer to the final source is always better as it reduces the chance of radio and electronic interference. Arguably there's not much concern here, but it is a factor in purity of sound.
2) There is a distinct advantage to having the headphones provide their own amp, and to a lesser degree the DAC. In doing so, the manufacturer pairs a perfectly calibrated reproduction system for their headphones and speakers. That alone will produce a noticeable quality difference even if the DAC is exactly the same as Apple's current on-board chip. Moreover, those headphones will now sound exactly the same regardless of the digital signal fed into it. Presently, the sound of the headphones and speakers changes for every source they are connected to relying on the equipment's built-in amp.
3) You seem to think prices will always stay what they currently are. The Audeze Sine headphones and cables sound cool. And yeah, I'd pay $50 for a cable that could do that, even if it were proprietary. But your anxiety ignores that once demand for digital headphones increases due to 70 million + new iPhone users, prices on items like this come down. Currently those are expensive headphones priced for niche customer manufacturing. In a year's time every headphone manufacturer eager to jump on the Apple gravy train will be undercutting the other to gain a foothold in this fledgling market. I can even foresee a common digital/analogue connector standard that enable all of the headphone makers to standardize and only manufacture cables for cosmetic reasons.
4) I have an AUX jack in my car. But I don't use it because it's a pain in the butt, having to plug two cables in every time I get in or out of the car. So for around $20 I bought a 3.5mm Bluetooth adapter from Amazon that works great. Afterwards I only have to plug my iPhone into power -- one cable, and the audio automatically connects. Best $20 I ever spent.
5) $20 BT adapter still too expensive for you? Rather buy a cheap 3.5mm AUX cable? OK, how about a decent Lightning adapter for under $10 from Amazon, manufactured by a Chinese knock-off company which are inevitable? Personally, I paid more than $10 for the analogue AUX cable I was using in my car, because the cheap one was picking up too much static, but that's me.
6) And what is this perpetual meme that you won't be able to charge the iPhone and listen to music at the same time? Not only is that simply solved with headphones, but it's even easier with AUX cables, for which adding a simple Lightning pass-through, which technology has existed since electricity was invented, would be standard for many such dedicated cables. Not to mention the possibility of a Smart Port which could likely be integrated into your existing phone cradle.
So, I see a lot of benefits for the consumer as well as the manufacture. It all depends on your attitude.
Please don’t ditch the 3.5 mm headphone socket, Apple!
I simply cannot understand those people that are excited about losing a headphone socket. If you never use the headphone socket, that's fine, but it’s a tiny component that has already been engineered into many small, thin devices, including many small, thin Apple devices. Removing it would be nothing but a devious and cynical attempt to sell more adapters, Beats headphones and MFi-licensed Lightning headphones. That does nothing for the consumer and it’s only going to make extra money for Apple's shareholders if people buy the iPhone 7 in the first place; if it has no 3.5 mm audio jack socket, I won’t be buying one.
Yes, you could use bluetooth, but bluetooth is lossy (lower audio quality), leaves you one more device you have to remember to keep charged (your BT headphones) and will drain the battery of your iPhone even faster.
Yes, you could buy an adapter from Apple. But who wants to remember - everywhere you go - to carry around (and potentially lose) an over-priced adapter?
Those that believe removing the headphone socket is necessary for waterproofing might want to check out the IP68 specs on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
Those saying the demise of the 3.5 mm socket is inevitable are overlooking the fact that Lightning is Apple proprietary and as such is never ever going to replace the 3.5 mm jack as the de facto standard for stereo analogue audio.
I simply cannot understand those people that are excited about losing a headphone socket. If you never use the headphone socket, that's fine, but it’s a tiny component that has already been engineered into many small, thin devices, including many small, thin Apple devices. Removing it would be nothing but a devious and cynical attempt to sell more adapters, Beats headphones and MFi-licensed Lightning headphones. That does nothing for the consumer and it’s only going to make extra money for Apple's shareholders if people buy the iPhone 7 in the first place; if it has no 3.5 mm audio jack socket, I won’t be buying one.
Yes, you could use bluetooth, but bluetooth is lossy (lower audio quality), leaves you one more device you have to remember to keep charged (your BT headphones) and will drain the battery of your iPhone even faster.
Yes, you could buy an adapter from Apple. But who wants to remember - everywhere you go - to carry around (and potentially lose) an over-priced adapter?
Those that believe removing the headphone socket is necessary for waterproofing might want to check out the IP68 specs on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
Those saying the demise of the 3.5 mm socket is inevitable are overlooking the fact that Lightning is Apple proprietary and as such is never ever going to replace the 3.5 mm jack as the de facto standard for stereo analogue audio.
I just paid $300 for studio quality headphones, they better not change the port and force me to listen my music on inferior headphones.
They would alienate me, I have like 3 pair of headphones, that need that 3.5mm audio jack.
And no, I am not going to have an adapter.(I will probably lose the thing)
This will force me, to just keep my phone for as long as possible, or maybe go for an Android phone as exit strategy, that does have the audio jack.
I do have bluetooth headphones, but, they are for gym, they are sometimes unreliable, and they only last like 3 to 4 hours, before having to be recharged, if bluetooth headphones can't last more than 10 hours at full blast, they shouldn't do this.
As mentioned a thousand times, they'll have an adapter anyway so my $380 Sennheisers will work fine - but really, you're note exactly getting "studio quality" out of an iPhone anyway.
Yup, there are many people like me who travel and very much enjoy their $300 noise cancelling headphones and wouldn't like them orphaned at Apple's whim. And many of us use the jack for other tools like wind meters with companion apps that use that jack. Plus all of the small merchants like my sister who use the jack for their credit card readers. Let alone others who use external mic's that use that jack.
All this while still being able the charge via the lightning jack are pretty compelling.
I would hold onto my 6s and then probably jump ship if Apple pulls this stunt as there is no good technical reason to pull this jack for at least a couple more years.