"With Lightning or Bluetooth, the audio signal is transferred to our headphones digitally—meaning that the signal isn’t degraded like it is with a traditional 3.5mm jack. Instead, the audio signals are decoded by the digital-analogue converter (DAC) in our headphones, pulling the bits apart and making them into the smooth analogue sound we know.
Simply put, Lightning cables are capable of transferring much more data […] which means higher fidelity audio in your ears."
"With Lightning or Bluetooth, the audio signal is transferred to our headphones digitally—meaning that the signal isn’t degraded like it is with a traditional 3.5mm jack. Instead, the audio signals are decoded by the digital-analogue converter (DAC) in our headphones, pulling the bits apart and making them into the smooth analogue sound we know.
Simply put, Lightning cables are capable of transferring much more data […] which means higher fidelity audio in your ears."
As an audio engineer I can you unequivocally that's typical marketing copy -- a grain of truth wrapped in horsepoop.
It is technically possible to achieve a small improvement in sound quality with a better DAC, but the kind of stuff one could use in a pair of headphones ain't gonna make a lick of difference, and doing so just replaces one set of drawbacks with different ones. The bottom line is that there are many other factors that affect the sound by orders of magnitude more than the DAC with fewer trade-offs and lower cost.
To all these people saying "oh no, I'm going to lose them, I need to join them together".
I bet you still have mittens with a string between them. If an earpiece falls out, you are going to know straight away, ALSO, unless you are doing some wild movement, you are going to know that it's about to fall out because it won't feel secure in your ear. If it does fall out, it's not like a needle and you aren't Stevie Wonder. You all did "Where's Waldo" books when you were young right? It's like that but far far easier. It's a lump of white plastic no further than about 2 foot maximum from where you are. Unless it's snowing, they'll be obvious.
To all these people saying "oh no, I'm going to lose them, I need to join them together".
I bet you still have mittens with a string between them. If an earpiece falls out, you are going to know straight away, ALSO, unless you are doing some wild movement, you are going to know that it's about to fall out because it won't feel secure in your ear. If it does fall out, it's not like a needle and you aren't Stevie Wonder. You all did "Where's Waldo" books when you were young right? It's like that but far far easier. It's a lump of white plastic no further than about 2 foot maximum from where you are. Unless it's snowing, they'll be obvious.
I tend to agree with you on this, however, I do expect to see lots of them laying out or lose. Not that dropped out of someone ears, more along the line that some took them out and laid them down and forget them or the case with the pods in them fell out of someone pocket or such. I can also see people losing them in their house. One of my favor feature of the watch is the fact I can use it to locate my phone. Not that I do it often but I have laid my phone down and could not seem to locate it quickly. You will not have this feature with the pods.
"With Lightning or Bluetooth, the audio signal is transferred to our headphones digitally—meaning that the signal isn’t degraded like it is with a traditional 3.5mm jack. Instead, the audio signals are decoded by the digital-analogue converter (DAC) in our headphones, pulling the bits apart and making them into the smooth analogue sound we know.
Simply put, Lightning cables are capable of transferring much more data […] which means higher fidelity audio in your ears."
This is assuming that for the Lightning headphones the DAC is actually in the earpiece. I've not looked into it at all, but I wouldn't be surprised that we find the DAC is actually in the Lightning plug itself. So you've moved the digital signal all of about one inch closer to your ears and the rest is still all that horrible analog stuff they are lamenting.
As for the wireless, what is the codec used? I think I read someplace they are using AAC, but I'm not sure. But wouldn't that mean any audio source that's not AAC (or whatever) needs to first be transcoded from one lossy format to another lossy format before it can be run through the DACs in each earpiece? How is this handled in regular Bluetooth headsets?
I guess bottom line, until people get their hands on these to test them we really aren't going to know.
I guess the SICKEST, part about these headphones, besides being able to pair with like 5-6 devices you have is:
Let's say you put both in your ears, right? You go about 4 hours from the morning, then at lunch, you take ONE(1) out and put it in the charging case. Go about your biz for about 20-25 minutes.
Take the newly charged one out of the case, get the freshly charged one working, then take the somewhat depleted ONE(1) out and put that in the charging case, for 20-25 minutes.
Drive back to work, take the 2nd charged one out of the case, and now you have TWO(2) recharged Pods, with absolutely (or somewhat) NO INTERRUPTIONS!
Plus your ears get 20-25 minutes each to relax and take a break from having them in your ears all day. This IS PERFECTION...
In addition on your drive home you could repeat this once again, (or just use bluetooth in your car), and then put them back in for the night... SICK...
Comments
"With Lightning or Bluetooth, the audio signal is transferred to our headphones digitally—meaning that the signal isn’t degraded like it is with a traditional 3.5mm jack. Instead, the audio signals are decoded by the digital-analogue converter (DAC) in our headphones, pulling the bits apart and making them into the smooth analogue sound we know.
Simply put, Lightning cables are capable of transferring much more data […] which means higher fidelity audio in your ears."
It is technically possible to achieve a small improvement in sound quality with a better DAC, but the kind of stuff one could use in a pair of headphones ain't gonna make a lick of difference, and doing so just replaces one set of drawbacks with different ones. The bottom line is that there are many other factors that affect the sound by orders of magnitude more than the DAC with fewer trade-offs and lower cost.
If an earpiece falls out, you are going to know straight away, ALSO, unless you are doing some wild movement, you are going to know that it's about to fall out because it won't feel secure in your ear.
If it does fall out, it's not like a needle and you aren't Stevie Wonder. You all did "Where's Waldo" books when you were young right? It's like that but far far easier.
It's a lump of white plastic no further than about 2 foot maximum from where you are. Unless it's snowing, they'll be obvious.
I tend to agree with you on this, however, I do expect to see lots of them laying out or lose. Not that dropped out of someone ears, more along the line that some took them out and laid them down and forget them or the case with the pods in them fell out of someone pocket or such. I can also see people losing them in their house. One of my favor feature of the watch is the fact I can use it to locate my phone. Not that I do it often but I have laid my phone down and could not seem to locate it quickly. You will not have this feature with the pods.
As for the wireless, what is the codec used? I think I read someplace they are using AAC, but I'm not sure. But wouldn't that mean any audio source that's not AAC (or whatever) needs to first be transcoded from one lossy format to another lossy format before it can be run through the DACs in each earpiece? How is this handled in regular Bluetooth headsets?
I guess bottom line, until people get their hands on these to test them we really aren't going to know.
Let's say you put both in your ears, right? You go about 4 hours from the morning, then at lunch, you take ONE(1) out and put it in the charging case. Go about your biz for about 20-25 minutes.
Take the newly charged one out of the case, get the freshly charged one working, then take the somewhat depleted ONE(1) out and put that in the charging case, for 20-25 minutes.
Drive back to work, take the 2nd charged one out of the case, and now you have TWO(2) recharged Pods, with absolutely (or somewhat) NO INTERRUPTIONS!
Plus your ears get 20-25 minutes each to relax and take a break from having them in your ears all day. This IS PERFECTION...
In addition on your drive home you could repeat this once again, (or just use bluetooth in your car), and then put them back in for the night... SICK...