However, there are several mechanisms by which moving the D-to-A outside the phone could improve audio quality. The most promising is because the electrical environment inside the phone is very noisy (everything is very close together and there are lots of very fast digital signals: however good the internal shielding, it will be quieter outside the phone's enclosure). Other possible benefits include avoiding pick-up on the cable and the opportunity to use a better quality D-to-A component.
None of that applies to the iOS devices, though.
Their analog output is absolutely top-notch, at a level with professional audio equipment, and has been since the iPhone 5.
Moving D/A to external devices doesn't improve anything, and is much more likely to deteriorate sound quality through inferior hardware.
I guess I am one of the few who like the idea of ditching thr headphone jack...it is entry for dust and is the movable part that has the potential for damage. Having a digital out will allow D/A conversion closer to the ears and allow more granularity of audio controls at headset (fast forward, skip, playback last 15 seconds) etc:
It will allow thinner designs, be a thorn in the side of competitors and allow synergy with the Beats acquisition because Apple can now make the matching peripherals as well.
All iOS devices output full line level when you connect a line input to their 3.5 mm jacks. They do fine with headphones.
This isn't the issue.
Not actually outputting an analogue signal, however, is.
You get analogue output via the 3.5mm jack which comes via an audio amplifier section with volume control. You get line-level output via the 30 pin or lightning connector which does not have volume control. The line-level signal is designed for connecting to external audio equipment like a HiFi and is of a voltage not far off that which would correspond to 80% volume setting via the headphone socket.
The line level output is therefore quite useless for driving headphones and the like as it would be far too loud and with no means to alter the volume.
However, there are several mechanisms by which moving the D-to-A outside the phone could improve audio quality. The most promising is because the electrical environment inside the phone is very noisy (everything is very close together and there are lots of very fast digital signals: however good the internal shielding, it will be quieter outside the phone's enclosure). Other possible benefits include avoiding pick-up on the cable and the opportunity to use a better quality D-to-A component.
Have you seen measurements of the signal quality output by iPhones? Have you 'listened' to the analogue output of an iPhone? If so, in what respect did you find it audibly deficient such that you think there is room for an audible improvement?
Do they expect me to just throw away my $300 headphones and my $150 earbuds? Ridiculous move Apple expecting me to diminish my user experience so you can save a mm of thickness.
gosh if only there were some sort of hardware means to let legacy plugs work with new ports. oh yeah, they're called adapters.
Yes, I love the future too. I love how the music I'm streaming via Airplay disappears when I turn on the microwave or one of the kids starts heavy lifting on the WiFi. And no, Bluetooth does not have the same audio quality as a pair of wires.
I'd suggest you get a better wifi set up. Using several Apple Airport extremes solved any such issues I ever had. In truth the only one I had was that the Christmas Tree lights blocked half the house from the original AE but adding a second one cured that and never had a problem since. They auto connect seamlessly.
Of course BT isn't yet up to wired yet but we are talking earbuds here. Also newer bluetooth set ups are a lot better than the past, my rear speakers and subwoofer work very well over BT but I appreciate the main front speakers are wired.
Tell the headphone manufacturers to support Bluetooth pairing for more than a single computer/phone/stereo. I don't want to keep unpairing and pairing again when going between different devices.
Hopefully if any such wireless move were to ever take place from Apple they would make it as seamless as mice and keyboards. I've no doubt Apple will use the Lighting connector but I see no reason that BT or some other wireless protocol would not be coming soon. Wireless is inevitable in most things including local charging IMHO.
Apple will always do what It will. Beyond that things like the Square and PayPal reader need access to the earphone port. Other specialty products do too. We need longer battery life not thinner instruments. Why, every two years, must we not only change our phone but a host of accessories as well?
Yes, I know I am not "forced" to make such changes but the OS will make it Neccessary anyway. Thinner isn't better!
thinner is better. can't get technology as flat as a piece of paper without breaking some eggs.
luckily for you, iPhone has gotten longer battery, despite getting thinner. amazing, eh?
Tell the Bluetooth Consortium to have Bluetooth 5 give us bandwidth necessary to carry lossless audio. Until then, wired can’t be replaced.
“But most people…”
Is that what we’ve become now? Is the transformation REALLY that complete? We’re REALLY going to accept that teaching to the lowest common denominator is an acceptable way to run a civilization? Then God help us, because it’s all coming down.
that's exactly what civilization is -- compromise. VHS wasn't the best. DVDs weren't the best. streaming isn't the best. even consumer headphones aren't the best. life is compromise for most people.
thinner is better. can't get technology as flat as a piece of paper without breaking some eggs.
luckily for you, iPhone has gotten longer battery, despite getting thinner. amazing, eh?
I agree. Remember the outcry over the lighting connector ... all the moaning about legacy chargers etc. In the last 30 odd years of using Macs at every point, when Apple make a move to the future, there are a load of moaners wanting Apple to leave things as they were. We'd all be still be using 400K floppies, Appletalk and SCSI, if Apple had done as these folks wanted. I'm pretty sure too, the PC industry would have been happy to stay in the 1980's had Apple not forced changes on the industry.
You get analogue output via the 3.5mm jack which comes via an audio amplifier section with volume control. You get line-level output via the 30 pin or lightning connector which does not have volume control. The line-level signal is designed for connecting to external audio equipment like a HiFi and is of a voltage not far off that which would correspond to 80% volume setting via the headphone socket.
The line level output is therefore quite useless for driving headphones and the like as it would be far too loud and with no means to alter the volume.
A) you do NOT get analogue audio out through Lightning, period. Digital signaling only.
the headphone out on iOS devices IS line-level AND a headphone amp. And its line-out audio quality is fantastic. I posted a link above. Read it.
C) there are several different accepted standard voltages for "line level". Impedance also matters.
D) you are correct that the 30-pin iPod connector output line-level analog audio whose volume could not be controlled from the device itself.
Tell the Bluetooth Consortium to have Bluetooth 5 give us bandwidth necessary to carry lossless audio. Until then, wired can’t be replaced.
“But most people…”
Is that what we’ve become now? Is the transformation REALLY that complete? We’re REALLY going to accept that teaching to the lowest common denominator is an acceptable way to run a civilization? Then God help us, because it’s all coming down.
I doubt God myths have any stories about helping with wireless but I guess people can make up what they want lol. But ... Have no fears, Apple has never allowed the lowest common denominator to set the bar. If the Bluetooth Consortium don't do as you say Apple will either do it themselves or come up with some new protocol that will, probably with other interested parties. As an example USB was crap and content to stay crap (and still is mostly crap) until Apple codeveloped FireWire and Thunderbolt.
This idea is terrible. As an pro audio fanatic, I love having 3.5 inch audio jacks on my laptops, iPads, and iPhones. If I need to buy a connector, I am going to stick with my iPhone 6S or simply get an Android phone which doesn't use a proprietary lightning connector. I don't really give a damn how much thinner my iPhone is... In fact the fact there is a camera bump on the iPhone 6/6S because they wanted to make it thin irks me everyday.
this is what Apple think: who cares. You're welcome to go with Android junks. Apple got to move on with new tech and ditch an old one once in awhile. Users like you are holding back technology. Just go home and watch p0rn on your CRT tv from VCR. Mr. One Post!
Whether this happens with the iPhone 7 or not is kind of irrelevant; at some point this will happen. The question comes down where will Apple place the DAC. They could put it in the Lightning controller or in the headphones.
I'm fairly certain that Lightning does NOT support analogue audio out. It is fully digital.
Any adapter you can buy includes a D/A converter.
Apple will make sure you're wrong on that. If Apple ditch the 3.5mm port, the Lighting port will support Analog signal. Otherwise, how the hell the new headphone will work? I'm sure that Apple won't be dumb enough to add D/A converter to the headphone. It doesn't make sense financially. Instead, they make the Lightning port on new iPhone compatible with analog headphone and sell you a 3.5mm-Lighting converter.
For whiners, you don't need to dump your $1000 headphone. Apple will sell you a connector and it should be small enough for your ridiculous habit ($1000 headphone for an iPhone?).
I LOVE IT!! Well at least people who have perfectly good headphones that weren't cheap and not convenient to upgrade to a pair of lightning connected headphones because
1. You just bought them and
2. Those same $1,000 headphones are gong to go "lightning" anytime soon....
...now maybe those of you who gave us grief over dumping the optical port on the new Apple TV can see how we feel about our perfectly functioning surround sound systems who now have to buy a clunky adapter or buy a Bluetooth surround sound - for no reason - other than Apple decided not to include an audio out port.
It's a pain in the butt huh? Yet you guys thought we were a bunch of "whining" (I believe the word you guys used describing our complaint). Now everyone with killer $1,000 headphones who don't want to buy or use an ugly adapter plugged in to use them on a "i-devce" - now you guys can get I the "whine line" behind us. Lol
how do you know the adapter will be ugly? If you use a $1000 headphone, the cable itself is already too ugly on the phone. Adding a little adaptor at the end of that headphone won't make any difference anyway.
Comments
None of that applies to the iOS devices, though.
Their analog output is absolutely top-notch, at a level with professional audio equipment, and has been since the iPhone 5.
Moving D/A to external devices doesn't improve anything, and is much more likely to deteriorate sound quality through inferior hardware.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/iphone-5/audio-quality.htm
It will allow thinner designs, be a thorn in the side of competitors and allow synergy with the Beats acquisition because Apple can now make the matching peripherals as well.
All iOS devices output full line level when you connect a line input to their 3.5 mm jacks. They do fine with headphones.
This isn't the issue.
Not actually outputting an analogue signal, however, is.
You get analogue output via the 3.5mm jack which comes via an audio amplifier section with volume control. You get line-level output via the 30 pin or lightning connector which does not have volume control. The line-level signal is designed for connecting to external audio equipment like a HiFi and is of a voltage not far off that which would correspond to 80% volume setting via the headphone socket.
The line level output is therefore quite useless for driving headphones and the like as it would be far too loud and with no means to alter the volume.
I agree that an improvement is not guaranteed.
However, there are several mechanisms by which moving the D-to-A outside the phone could improve audio quality. The most promising is because the electrical environment inside the phone is very noisy (everything is very close together and there are lots of very fast digital signals: however good the internal shielding, it will be quieter outside the phone's enclosure). Other possible benefits include avoiding pick-up on the cable and the opportunity to use a better quality D-to-A component.
Have you seen measurements of the signal quality output by iPhones? Have you 'listened' to the analogue output of an iPhone? If so, in what respect did you find it audibly deficient such that you think there is room for an audible improvement?
Without the technical gains learned while making iPhones thinner, the iPad Pro would not have been possible.
gosh if only there were some sort of hardware means to let legacy plugs work with new ports. oh yeah, they're called adapters.
you people crack me up. any year now....
I'd suggest you get a better wifi set up. Using several Apple Airport extremes solved any such issues I ever had. In truth the only one I had was that the Christmas Tree lights blocked half the house from the original AE but adding a second one cured that and never had a problem since. They auto connect seamlessly.
Of course BT isn't yet up to wired yet but we are talking earbuds here. Also newer bluetooth set ups are a lot better than the past, my rear speakers and subwoofer work very well over BT but I appreciate the main front speakers are wired.
Hopefully if any such wireless move were to ever take place from Apple they would make it as seamless as mice and keyboards. I've no doubt Apple will use the Lighting connector but I see no reason that BT or some other wireless protocol would not be coming soon. Wireless is inevitable in most things including local charging IMHO.
thinner is better. can't get technology as flat as a piece of paper without breaking some eggs.
luckily for you, iPhone has gotten longer battery, despite getting thinner. amazing, eh?
that's exactly what civilization is -- compromise. VHS wasn't the best. DVDs weren't the best. streaming isn't the best. even consumer headphones aren't the best. life is compromise for most people.
I agree. Remember the outcry over the lighting connector ... all the moaning about legacy chargers etc. In the last 30 odd years of using Macs at every point, when Apple make a move to the future, there are a load of moaners wanting Apple to leave things as they were. We'd all be still be using 400K floppies, Appletalk and SCSI, if Apple had done as these folks wanted. I'm pretty sure too, the PC industry would have been happy to stay in the 1980's had Apple not forced changes on the industry.
A) you do NOT get analogue audio out through Lightning, period. Digital signaling only.
C) there are several different accepted standard voltages for "line level". Impedance also matters.
D) you are correct that the 30-pin iPod connector output line-level analog audio whose volume could not be controlled from the device itself.
I doubt God myths have any stories about helping with wireless but I guess people can make up what they want lol. But ... Have no fears, Apple has never allowed the lowest common denominator to set the bar. If the Bluetooth Consortium don't do as you say Apple will either do it themselves or come up with some new protocol that will, probably with other interested parties. As an example USB was crap and content to stay crap (and still is mostly crap) until Apple codeveloped FireWire and Thunderbolt.
LOL @ pro audio fanatic.
For whiners, you don't need to dump your $1000 headphone. Apple will sell you a connector and it should be small enough for your ridiculous habit ($1000 headphone for an iPhone?).