Use your Lightning headphones on your Mac or iPad Pro with Anker's new USB-C adapter
Accessory maker Anker has launched a USB-C to Lightning audio adapter, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to use their Lightning headphones with any USB-C device.
The adapter is MFi-certified by Apple, and can connect Lightning headphones to hardware such as Macs, iPad Pros, and Windows 10 PCs, Anker says. This should include full mic and remote support. The company does caution that Macs may require a one-time setup in which the adapter is selected for output and input.
Anker is further promising 24-bit, 48-kilohertz lossless audio for compatible files and headphones. Digital fidelity is one of the main selling points of Lightning.
Lightning headphones are relatively rare though, since the industry -- Apple included -- has increasingly shifted toward Bluetooth, and sets with 3.5mm or USB cables have wider uses.
Lightning is featured on Apple's EarPods and urBeats3. Some third-party brands making products include Sennheiser, Audeze, Pioneer, and Radius.
The Anker USB-C to Lightning Audio Adapter costs $29.99.
The adapter is MFi-certified by Apple, and can connect Lightning headphones to hardware such as Macs, iPad Pros, and Windows 10 PCs, Anker says. This should include full mic and remote support. The company does caution that Macs may require a one-time setup in which the adapter is selected for output and input.
Anker is further promising 24-bit, 48-kilohertz lossless audio for compatible files and headphones. Digital fidelity is one of the main selling points of Lightning.
Lightning headphones are relatively rare though, since the industry -- Apple included -- has increasingly shifted toward Bluetooth, and sets with 3.5mm or USB cables have wider uses.
Lightning is featured on Apple's EarPods and urBeats3. Some third-party brands making products include Sennheiser, Audeze, Pioneer, and Radius.
The Anker USB-C to Lightning Audio Adapter costs $29.99.
Comments
Now if someone would come up with a Lightning headphones to 3.5mm dongle, the transition to Lightning connectors as a replacement for the old headphone jack would be complete.
Totally agree with your comments regarding the connectors, though. The Anker dongle costs $30 - so that's an extra $30 to get the same functionality we used to have for free with the 3.5mm jack. My daughter told me a few weeks ago that she doesn't want an iPhone for her next phone because it's too much of a pain dealing with the dongle for the headphones. She also complained that she can't use the same headphones with her laptop and iPhone unless she has the dongle with and has resorted to tying the dongle to a set of 3.5mm headphones. Despite Tim Cook's proclamations, 3+ years on the 'obsolete' headphone jack is still the standard and from from obsolete.
Yeah and for that $30 we got a bigger battery, water gaskets, and OIS hardware in the non-plus size in return (as per engineering VP). That’s very much worth it.
Your daughter doesn’t want an iphone because of wanting to use the legacy port rather than a digital port or using the adapter? lol. Ok. Be a sport and give her some BT headphones for her bday, you’ll blow her mind.
I wouldn't say it won't happen. Considering an AirPod is able to provide 5 hours of battery life streaming digital audio and amplifying it for listening, I'd say there's an adapter with a rechargeable battery to meet this need in a reasonably sized package. The issue is going to be cost, and demand. By all accounts Lightning is coming to the end of its run, even as battery technology improves and costs come down. That said, Apple continues to release new Lightning headphones, which will need some way to connect to legacy devices. I suspect the iPad Pro is the driver behind a third party finally introducing an adapter, as the pool of potential buyers increased substantially over just PC and Mac users. But doing so only increases the needs of customers who can now carry just one pair of headphones for use with most of their devices, which furthers the desire for a way to bridge that last chasm.
Apple could have allowed Lightning to bypass the internal circuitry and pass through an analogue signal with the correct adapter, which wouldn't require a power source -- and who knows, maybe it's mechanically possible with a software update. But it would have been a simple solution to allow Lightning headphones to function on every audio device in existence. Instead it took 3 years to address the simple need to use one pair of headphones on all current devices made by the same company.
Hah. Based on the market saturation, there's an argument to be made that AirPods are the niche use, given that BT headphones are still only a small minority of the overall headphone sales, even though they are the most profitable segment.
Next time maybe read the article before commenting! You’re probably also unaware that some Apple products still do have the headphone jack, or that Bluetooth has been invented and works great for headphones (frankly I don’t know why people are still using wired headphones now that BT 4.2/5.0 exists).
StrangeDays said: Based on personal observation, quite a few. Like I have said in the past, 3.5mm headphones are still the industry standard. They work in everything except iPhones and a few android phones. They work with out extra batteries, without pairing and in devices that don't have bluetooth. They also don't have batteries that wear out. The last time I flew with my family, my son and I watched a movie together on my laptop. We both had a set of headphones with a Y adapter. You can't do that with bluetooth either. If you don't want the expense and hassle of bluetooth headphones then you have a choice of carrying 2 sets of headphones or one set with the standard 3.5mm plug and a lightning adapter.
Cost and demand is exactly why I don't think it will happen. It's certainly technically feasible, but it would be significantly more cost and hassle to do that vs get a pair of standard headphones with a $10 lightning to 3.5mm adapter. The number of lightning headphones is minuscule compared to the number of 3.5mm headphones, and as you say, the lightning jack's days are numbered. I'm guessing the Anker adapter's best use is for the people who made the mistake of buying expensive Beats headphones with a lightning jack that will become obsolete once Apple switches over to USB C.