Here's What a Headphone Jack to Lightning Adapter Looks Like

[Mac 128]

I agree, in fact I posted this same solution several weeks ago in the previous "outrage" thread concerned with the removal of the analog headphone port.

Just because Apple hasn't implemented this in the past doesn't mean that they couldn't in the future, on the next iPhone.

While it's possible to do, if Apple were going to allow analogue signals over Lightning, they would have done it in the transition to Lightning with the 30-pin Lightning adapters. But they did not.

All passing an analogue signal through Lightning does is require an adapter that changes the shape of the plug, and that's the worst insult possible for the customer. Apple learned that the hard way with the original iPhone. If Apple is going to do this, then they have to offer some benefit to the customer in exchange for the inconvenience, even if it costs a bit more in the beginning. Also, it does nothing to improve Apple's bottom line as they will have to continue to source the same high quality DAC & amp, rather than take the savings by offering a lower quality chipset needed for the built-in speakers.

But ultimately, they end up encouraging those with legacy 3.5mm equipment to continue using it, which does nothing to bolster demand for digital audio products, thereby eliminating incentive, competition, innovation, and price reductions on a market which currently has an expensive entry point.

 

[cmichaelb]

This is a good review from Anandtech of past and present storage performance. You can see the jump from the 5S to 6S is huge, but even the 6 to 6S is rather massive.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9662/iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-preliminary-results

Thanks! I look forward to reading it.

 

[AsherN]

Well I suppose you can buy a lightning to 3.5mm adapter, but it's just seems a bit ironic to do that.

Here's the thing though. That Lighning headphone will expect a digital signal, to be processed by it's DAC. Sou your 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter will need an ADC. Therefore, the signal will go through the phone's DAC to the 3.5mm, then through an ADC for the Lighning connector and then through another DAC to the headphones. Quality, right there.

 

[Melodist]

While it's possible to do, if Apple were going to allow analogue signals over Lightning, they would have done it in the transition to Lightning with the 30-pin Lightning adapters. But they did not.

All passing an analogue signal through Lightning does is require an adapter that changes the shape of the plug, and that's the worst insult possible for the customer. Apple learned that the hard way with the original iPhone. If Apple is going to do this, then they have to offer some benefit to the customer in exchange for the inconvenience, even if it costs a bit more in the beginning. Also, it does nothing to improve Apple's bottom line as they will have to continue to source the same high quality DAC & amp, rather than take the savings by offering a lower quality chipset needed for the built-in speakers.

But ultimately, they end up encouraging those with legacy 3.5mm equipment to continue using it, which does nothing to bolster demand for digital audio products, thereby eliminating incentive, competition, innovation, and price reductions on a market which currently has an expensive entry point.

Legacy 3.5mm? Guess, what, audio prefers broad lanes for transmission. If in the future audio is created by stimulating receptors in our brains, then I'd call it archaic...

 

[AsherN]

To the people decrying the end of the world that they may not be able to charge and listen at the same time, how often are you actually doing that? And is it because you don't charge your phone overnight, or is it because you use battery heavy apps (music streaming/video) that require a mid-day charge?

I've literally never done both, but I've got a night-time routine down to plug all my devices in (watch, phone, occasionally iPad) before I go to sleep and my usage doesn't drain the battery past 40% remaining most days.

Everytime I listen to a lot of music at work. My phone will go down almost 10%/hr while playing music.

 

[NT1440]

Everytime I listen to a lot of music at work. My phone will go down almost 10%/hr while playing music.

Is that local music or do you stream? I listen to podcasts all day and lose about 30% because of it.

Just curious

 

[Mac 128]

This is another case where the proprietary nature of the lightning jack hurts the industry. Anyone wanting to make one will have to be Apple certified, and certified hardware usually carries an expensive price tag. I wouldn't be surprised to see official Apple adapters cost $70, and probably $30-40 from others, which is a huge money grab IMO. But that's not even the biggest issue. Soon enough there will be plenty of headphones out there with a lightning connector, well enough but what happens when you switch phones, or want to use the same headphones in the other bazillion devices which have a 3.5mm jack? Well I suppose you can buy a lightning to 3.5mm adapter, but it's just seems a bit ironic to do that. So while I completely agree we need to move beyond the 3.5mm jack, it just seems that a standard should be in place and everyone required to use it.

For starters, Apple doesn't even charge $70 for its Lightning to 3.5mm and other D/A adapters now. The closest one to this costs $29 and that does more than a simple 3.5mm adapter needs to do. Also, the need to license Lightning has not stopped hundreds of Chinese manufacturers from selling cheap reliable Lightning based products without one.

Your biggest issue is not understanding where headphones are going. Most high end headphones you can buy now have detachable cables. Beats even has one with a pass-through cable so your friends can daisy-chain off your headphones so that you don't need to carry around a headphone splitter on your iPhone. Digital headphones will follow suit. They will accept a digital and analogue signal, depending on what kind of cable you plug into your headphones. There will be no such thing as a Ligthning only headphone. When you move away from Lightning, you just replace the cable with USB-C, or 3.5mm or whatever else comes along during the life of those headphones. Temporarily switching between equipment, a simple adapter might be more useful, or a custom cable with whatever connection you might need built-in. And this will also be the case with wireless headphones. Most now come with optional cables so when the battery runs out, you can just plug in, or connect to a device that doesn't have BT output.

Add to that the ability to pass-through and daisy-chain right on the headphones. So there's yet another way to charger your phone while listening to music at the same time, assuming your particular cable or adapter doesn't have an in-line pass through that doesn't add any additional bulk to your cables and connectors.

 

[spinedoc77]

For starters, Apple doesn't even charge $70 for its Lightning to 3.5mm and other D/A adapters now. The closest one to this costs $29 and that does more than a simple 3.5mm adapter needs to do. Also, the need to license Lightning has not stopped hundreds of Chinese manufacturers from selling cheap reliable Lightning based products without one.

Your biggest issue is not understanding where headphones are going. Most high end headphones you can buy now have detachable cables. Beats even has one with a pass-through cable so your friends can daisy-chain off your headphones so that you don't need to carry around a headphone splitter on your iPhone. Digital headphones will follow suit. They will accept a digital and analogue signal, depending on what kind of cable you plug into your headphones. There will be no such thing as a Ligthning only headphone. When you move away from Lightning, you just replace the cable with USB-C, or 3.5mm or whatever else comes along during the life of those headphones. Temporarily switching between equipment, a simple adapter might be more useful, or a custom cable with whatever connection you might need built-in. And this will also be the case with wireless headphones. Most now come with optional cables so when the battery runs out, you can just plug in, or connect to a device that doesn't have BT output.

Add to that the ability to pass-through and daisy-chain right on the headphones. So there's yet another way to charger your phone while listening to music at the same time, assuming your particular cable or adapter doesn't have an in-line pass through that doesn't add any additional bulk to your cables and connectors.

Interesting, so you can just unplug the lightning connector from the headphone itself and replace it with a 3.5mm connector? So it's not as bad as I thought. What is everyone freaking over?

 

[NT1440]

For starters, Apple doesn't even charge $70 for its Lightning to 3.5mm and other D/A adapters now. The closest one to this costs $29 and that does more than a simple 3.5mm adapter needs to do. Also, the need to license Lightning has not stopped hundreds of Chinese manufacturers from selling cheap reliable Lightning based products without one.

Your biggest issue is not understanding where headphones are going. Most high end headphones you can buy now have detachable cables. Beats even has one with a pass-through cable so your friends can daisy-chain off your headphones so that you don't need to carry around a headphone splitter on your iPhone. Digital headphones will follow suit. They will accept a digital and analogue signal, depending on what kind of cable you plug into your headphones. There will be no such thing as a Ligthning only headphone. When you move away from Lightning, you just replace the cable with USB-C, or 3.5mm or whatever else comes along during the life of those headphones. Temporarily switching between equipment, a simple adapter might be more useful, or a custom cable with whatever connection you might need built-in. And this will also be the case with wireless headphones. Most now come with optional cables so when the battery runs out, you can just plug in, or connect to a device that doesn't have BT output.

Add to that the ability to pass-through and daisy-chain right on the headphones. So there's yet another way to charger your phone while listening to music at the same time, assuming your particular cable or adapter doesn't have an in-line pass through that doesn't add any additional bulk to your cables and connectors.

But how am I supposed to use my ear canal shredding dollar store earbuds!?!?

I can't believe Apple is *forcing* me to spend more than $20 for headphones to use with my $800+ headphones! /s

 

[Defthand]

Some possible explanations for Apple’s decision… 1) The majority of Users probably don’t use the same headphones or earbuds with multiple devices. We tend to listen to Music exclusively on one device or have headphones or speakers for each device; 2) Wireless charging is on the horizon. You won’t need the lightning port for charging; 3) A universal connection standard like USB-C won’t benefit Users if other platforms don’t pursue a similar strategy for audio—namely that of supporting an external DAC through that port.

 

[Foremastjack]

I'm not quite understanding this claim that lightning headphones will be higher quality than analog jack. At some point there has to be a DAC, as the headphone speakers themselves are analog. So whether the DAC is in the headphones, or in the device (phone, stereo, tv, etc) makes no real difference surely? And unless you have high end headphones with a DAC in them, they aren't going to beat the DAC in my high end stereo right?!

Exactly right. The Lightning connector is just the plug used to move the signal from the DAC to the phones- nothing magically better than a 3.5mm.

 

[monstruo]

Maybe wireless charging ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Or another adaptor.

 

[RedWing512]

"The Verge's Nilay Patel has called the move 'user-hostile and stupid', while Steve Streza...said the decision is good for Apple but bad for the consumer."

Whiners. People said the same thing when Apple switched from the 30-pin connector to Lightning. Does anyone still regret that move? I know I don't.

The key difference is that there were actual benefits to switching from 30-pin to Lightning. This? Not so much.

I think Apple's main reasoning behind this is two-fold: 1) Make more profits by selling more adapters, and 2) another way to lock people into the Apple ecosystem. And what's worse--they know people like you will stick up for them and try to justify their reasoning by bringing up things like the floppy drives and 30-pin, when it's a completely different scenario.

Floppy drives were old, loud, and couldn't store much. I think people were happy and were more than ready to switch when CD-R tech came around.

The 30-pin to Lightning switch was a bit of a pain, but not a big deal since it was a switch from one proprietary connector to the other.

The 3.5mm audio jack? It's ubiquitous. Anyone who has a pair of earphones or earbuds can use them anywhere one of those jacks can be found. On a stereo. Your computer. Your car. And used to be your phone--ANY PHONE, but instead, Apple decides you need to buy and adapter to use something that, to this point, has been pretty much a world-wide standard. And what's worse, because it's Apple making the change (and they're the ones that "push the industry forward"), other companies (i.e., Lenovo/Motorola) are following suit with their new phones. There's absolutely no way a change like this can be justified. NO. WAY.

 

[Mac 128]

Interesting, so you can just unplug the lightning connector from the headphone itself and replace it with a 3.5mm connector? So it's not as bad as I thought. What is everyone freaking over?

I understand the resistance to wanting to use adapters, or even switching cables to use different devices. And it's going to have the most impact on anyone who recently bought a pair of expensive 3.5mm headphones without a digital interface. But the uninformed FUD is what I really object to. Once Apple does this, anyone who buys a new digital headphone without a removable cable is simply making a poorly thought out purchase, unless they are getting an amazing deal.

Some possible explanations for Apple’s decision… 1) The majority of Users probably don’t use the same headphones or earbuds with multiple devices. We tend to listen to Music exclusively on one device or have headphones or speakers for each device; 2) Wireless charging is on the horizon. You won’t need the lightning port for charging; 3) A universal connection standard like USB-C won’t benefit Users if other platforms don’t pursue a similar strategy for audio—namely that of supporting an external DAC through that port.

1) Agreed.
2) Wireless charging would be nice, or even the rumored Smart Connector. But a simple passthrough on the Lightning plug itself is more than adequate to address the situation, not to mention a passthrough connector built into a new digital set of headphones. Apple could even include a passthrough port in the charging brick, or included Lightning cable itself.
3) Based on everything I'm seeing, USB-C is likely going to be the "standard" for digital audio on competing platforms, and they are most likely going to follow Apple within a year of Apple dropping it. However, it will be years before there's enough new and replacement equipment on the market to eliminate adapters, and for this new wired "standard" to gain a significant foothold. In the meantime, Apple would just be asking 4 years worth of customers to toss a substantial investment in Lightning and buy into USB-C which will be just as useless in the near term on other devices. So Apple might just as well stick with Lightning, so that by the time digital audio connections are the new norm, wireless audio, data, and charging will be the new "standard", and customers can just ditch the cables altogether.

 

[toddzrx]

Apple hasn't done anything yet. Other companies, in fact, have ditched the 3.5mm plug already. Our point is, that these things have happened before, be it ditching old ports for USB or floppy drives for cd drives, on screen keyboards instead of physical keyboards. And each time people kick and scream, say that Apple will fail and no one will accept the change, until people do exactly that. And in short order people forget about what they complained about, but are at the ready to scream the next time a change is "forced" on them.

It's actually pretty funny to watch it play out time and again.

I understand your point and you may well be right. But your logic is flawed in comparing the removal of the headphone jack, replaced by a wired lightning connector or wireless BT phones, with the removal of previous legacy tech like the 3.5 floppy drive or optical drives. There are significant differences; namely that consumers will have to add an adapter at a minimum to use the headphones they already have and that already work with a lot of other electronics they may own. In the case of legacy tech like floppy drives, the replacement tech (in this case USB flash drives) was an improvement in every way, except maybe for some upfront costs for the new components. That's not the case here.

More surprising to me is that Apple is trying to attempt this on an iPhone 6 chassis, if the rumors are true. I'd think they'd want to wait until 2017, and make a bigger splash with an all-new chassis (supposedly going back to a glass back) and who knows what other features they are planning on. Given the unexpected success of the iPhone SE, which is probably coming more from previous iPhone owners who prefer the smaller screen, I'm thinking this fall's iPhone may not be terribly successful.

 

[Mac 128]

Exactly right. The Lightning connector is just the plug used to move the signal from the DAC to the phones- nothing magically better than a 3.5mm.

I don't even know why this is still being debated. It's like a straw man argument.

And the technical point being made completely overlooks the spirit in which this statement is being made by most people.

Lightning is more than just a connector, it's everything involved in the delivery pipeline, from sending a noise free digital signal directly decoded from the sound file, to an audio chipset that has been customized for the audio equipment in question. So the manufacturer will now have full control over what their audio device sounds like, which ensures higher quality and consistent sound regardless what device it's plugged into, compared to what Apple is currently offering via the 3.5mm jack now.

So why is this even an issue? Yes, Apple could have chosen to include a hybrid 3.5mm jack as they have done in the MacBooks, with a digital I/O depending on what is plugged into it. But that doesn't address the problem that the 3.5mm jack is still a very large port that is essentially duplicating at that point everything that could be handled by the Lightning port, which is required for data delivery and charging as well. Does it make more sense to come up with some sort of new digital 3.5mm connector, similar to the iPod Shuffle, to replace Lightning? Probably not, since for mobile consumer audio, the future is wireless. Why waste time with yet another complicated option customers will have to invest into, that does nothing toward moving customers away from analogue audio, the 3.5mm port for which will be eliminated eventually anyway? Not to mention it is a much larger connector than Lightning, which does not help them reclaim any internal space, and potentially posing even more risks for accidental electrical shorts and problems, which isn't as versatile as Ligthning for any potential future needs that may arise.

 

[Larry-K]

Looks like $70 down the drain.

 

[whydontyousketchit]

 

[Mac 128]

I understand your point and you may well be right. But your logic is flawed in comparing the removal of the headphone jack, replaced by a wired lightning connector or wireless BT phones, with the removal of previous legacy tech like the 3.5 floppy drive or optical drives. There are significant differences; namely that consumers will have to add an adapter at a minimum to use the headphones they already have and that already work with a lot of other electronics they may own. In the case of legacy tech like floppy drives, the replacement tech (in this case USB flash drives) was an improvement in every way, except maybe for some upfront costs for the new components. That's not the case here.

Sorry but you're engaging in some creative revisionist history. When Apple dropped the floppy there was only a few ways to get data out of an iMac. A 33.6 modem, a 10/100 Ethernet port, an IrDA port, and USB. At the time NONE of those options were standard data transfer methods for most consumer households. Even if you had an expensive USB thumb drive ($5/MB), good luck finding another computer with a USB port to use it on. The only solutions were to add on an expensive and hard to get USB floppy drive, offered by only one manufacturer at the time, or an even more expensive USB DVD-R drive which used expensive and wasteful media.

Apple took away a ubiquitous standard, before a good a viable alternate was widely available, which required customers to embrace the new expensive technology which was mostly incompatible with the rest of the world for several years, and further required others to upgrade their existing equipment with Serial to USB dongles in order to interact with the few other computers that were using USB. Internet file transfers were slow and unreliable.

Now you can say all you want that digital audio delivered by whatever means does not represent an improvement over analogue audio delivered by 3.5mm. But that is a debatable opinion. The connection method is irrespective of the outcome. And personally I see more benefits coming from digital audio delivery than I do analogue for the future of audio that outweigh dropping the convenience of the 3.5mm jack.

 

[maikerukun]

I've been looking forward to this. I've been using bluetooth headphones for years lol, I HATE wires on headphones, and it's mostly to do with getting in the way.

I may be swayed back to wired headphones if it means better sound quality, which according to research, lightning headphones equals far superior sound.

 

[Loge]

I've been looking forward to this. I've been using bluetooth headphones for years lol, I HATE wires on headphones, and it's mostly to do with getting in the way.

I may be swayed back to wired headphones if it means better sound quality, which according to research, lightning headphones equals far superior sound.

Why are you looking forward to it if you are using it already? All that's happening is that options are being removed for others.

 

[d00d]

I don't even know why this is still being debated. It's like a scarecrow argument.

Weren't you the one that used a sarcastic mischaracterization of those in favor of keeping the 3.5mm port for now? Speaking of scarecrows.

 

[Larry-K]

I've been looking forward to this. I've been using bluetooth headphones for years lol, I HATE wires on headphones, and it's mostly to do with getting in the way.

I may be swayed back to wired headphones if it means better sound quality, which according to research, lightning headphones equals far superior sound.

Let's see that research.

 

[Loge]

Interesting to hear how Apple transitioned away from the floppy drive - sounds like a total bag of hurt. On the PC side machines just shipped for some time with both floppy and CD-Rom; no pain at all, and every incentive to move to the CD-Rom since it was clearly an order of magnitude better.

 

[jmgregory1]

http://www.computerworld.com/articl...e-12-in-second-biggest-downturn-since-07.html

Here is an article stating that Mac sales took a tumble. Last quarter.

One thing I know from personal experience, is when I was looking for a new computer. I for a short moment contemplated about getting the new MacBook. But I just couldn't get around the fact it didn't have USB ports.

I depend on those things.

Also that you can't even charge the computer, while you are using the port, because it has only one port, there are so many times that I need to charge while I need to have an external hard drive attached to it.

The less practical Apple makes their products. I think they will suffer sooner or later.

Maybe I am making an incorrect assumption why Mac Sales have gone down. But I wouldn't be surprised, a lot of people can't not have a 1000 dollar laptop, without USB ports.

And no, adapters are not an elegant solution. You and Apple can go all alone into this marvelous Walled in Future.

I might not go inside the palace though, with many fellow Luddites.

First of all, the rMB is but one Apple laptop. It was designed for a very particular part of the market, those people that value thin and light and wireless connectivity above multiple legacy ports. It's ideal for people who spend lots of time on a plane or in class. If your needs are such that you have to have multiple devices attached and be plugged in all the time, there's a 13" and 15" rMBP that would fit the bill quite nicely.

Ah, but I'm guessing that you also want the latest and greatest chips and specs, because although you don't like the connectivity shift, you do want all the other latest features

I understand your point and you may well be right. But your logic is flawed in comparing the removal of the headphone jack, replaced by a wired lightning connector or wireless BT phones, with the removal of previous legacy tech like the 3.5 floppy drive or optical drives. There are significant differences; namely that consumers will have to add an adapter at a minimum to use the headphones they already have and that already work with a lot of other electronics they may own. In the case of legacy tech like floppy drives, the replacement tech (in this case USB flash drives) was an improvement in every way, except maybe for some upfront costs for the new components. That's not the case here.

More surprising to me is that Apple is trying to attempt this on an iPhone 6 chassis, if the rumors are true. I'd think they'd want to wait until 2017, and make a bigger splash with an all-new chassis (supposedly going back to a glass back) and who knows what other features they are planning on. Given the unexpected success of the iPhone SE, which is probably coming more from previous iPhone owners who prefer the smaller screen, I'm thinking this fall's iPhone may not be terribly successful.

Your points seem to validate mine, not dispel them. When Apple did dump the floppy drive, consumers and business had lots of disks that were effectively garbage, with no way to use them again - other than to buy a separate drive (much like using an adapter with headphones). In hindsight, people forget just how painful previous shifts really were, and there are whole groups of people who didn't experience those shifts. That's the thing, we invest in what is the standard of the day, only to have it become old and outdated. People complain, then move on.

And as far as Apple removing the 3.5mm port. It has not yet happened. Why not complain that Motorola did this first, or actually I think it was Huwai that might have been the first. The buzz is that Apple might dump it, but Apple will also do their part to mitigate complaints (to a point) and help the transition to the new technology. Much like what they did in shifting from 30pin to Lightning connectors.