Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Impacts of removing the headphone jack [MERGED]
- Thread starter Appleaker
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
- Status
Who doesn't know that... I know it's in the box but headphone controls tend to not work with adapter and third party headphones. I hate EarPods, terrible headphones. I tried to resolve the listing while charging issue with a third party adapter but that didn't work very well either. The whole setup feels like a half ass implementation.
It would've been nice to have dual speakers and water resistance.
That's why I said it would've been nice to have that but the lack of headphone jack kept me away. Had every iPhone since release. First time I'm not upgrading.
You say that like it's supposed to mean something. For every one of you, there is likely a new mobile phone user buying his first iPhone and couldn't care less that it has no headphone jack.
You mad? I was merely pointing out that I'm not the only one thinking this. Removing a universal port for a proprietary one seems user hostile and will turn some users away from the platform. We won't know the true impact of this for at least a year but it will have an impact.
Enjoy your headphone jacks now. In a few years or less no one phones will have them.
And by that time wireless headphone technology should be much better. As it stands today it isn't great.
The removal of the headphone jack hasn't bothered me one bit. Most of my listening is done via bluetooth; if not, then there's always the dongle for wired 'phones.
[doublepost=1483369922][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1483369922][/doublepost]
It sounds transparent, ie. identical to me on my Sennheiser PCX-550s.
Even I still use wired headphones today, Im so glad that Apple is moving towards completely wireless products (including charging, listening and data transferring). Wireless will be so much better experience than wired ones.
For example, think about wirelessly EQ:ing your headphone with certain app? Or wirelessly charging them while they are still on your head? Or selecting the audio source and volume with just SIRI or simple touch control?
And the sound quality will be also better than current wired ones. We are not there yet, but i believe in 10 years all these will be reality. Now we are on the beginning of that transaction.
For example, think about wirelessly EQ:ing your headphone with certain app? Or wirelessly charging them while they are still on your head? Or selecting the audio source and volume with just SIRI or simple touch control?
And the sound quality will be also better than current wired ones. We are not there yet, but i believe in 10 years all these will be reality. Now we are on the beginning of that transaction.
For someone sitting still at a desk in his home all this wireless charging and voice command stuff you mention may be useful. For those of us who only use our headphones when we travel, this won't happen. At 25,000 feet I have no wireless charger and the people sitting all around me don't want to hear me use Siri, in fact Siri has been out for over 5 years and I've yet to hear someone use it on an aircraft or train, it's just not socially proper.
If 10 years from now the sound quality issues and inconveniences have been corrected, sure, why not. But it's not 10 years from now. It's today. And wired is the better solution.
BJ
Sure you cant use your stuff if you don't precharge them, or if you dont bother to take your charger with you whenever you go. That how it works even today. If you can charge with wires at 25,000 feet today, you bet you can do that too when its wireless. And who knows in the future there is even integrated wireless standard chargers allmost everywhere you go, also in airplanes, trains etc. They may not be free tho.
Okay. Then use your gadgets silently. It works today and Im sure it will work in the future too. Wireless doesn't mean you are forced to use only SIRI.
What inconveniences and sound quality issues do you exactly mean?
You trade one inconvenience for the other. Wireless headphones w/ having to carry a dongle/charger as opposed to wired headphones but lose the ability to listen and charge at the same time.
The sound of BT wireless headphones as apposed to analog wired is not up to par yet, and in all fairness it will never be from an audiophile perspective.
The sound of BT wireless headphones as apposed to analog wired is not up to par yet, and in all fairness it will never be from an audiophile perspective.
Sound quality of wireless does not equal wired, the dynamic range isn't there and the distortion is noticeable. And the moment you start using them the batteries start to fade and so too goes the sound quality.
Inconveniences are many. Wireless headphones are heavier than wired. Wireless headphones have batteries that die unexpectedly. Wireless headphones require chargers to be available. Wireless headphones have standby times. Wireless headphones are more expensive than wired. Wireless headphones need more frequent repair than wired. Wireless headphones have changing firmware and protocol requirements. Wireless headphones can lose a handshake with the host device. Wireless headphones can drop a signal intermittently. Wireless headphones are illegal on certain airlines.
This isn't like cordless TV remotes in the 70's or cordless telephones in the 80's. While tethered, those products were not portable so long as they were wired. The wire on a headphone today is practically weightless and does not interfere with the iPhone's ability to go anywhere at any time. One must think of the people who are truly inconvenienced by a 36" lightweight wire, I can't really think of any outside of a jogger whose arms might get tangled.
Bluetooth headphones have been around for over a decade, they still only represent a small fraction of headphone unit sales. People simply prefer wired. It's the superior technology. It's far more convenient.
BJ
I must disagree. For example sennheiser momentum 2.0 wireless and sennheiser pcx 550 wireless are average or above on measured distortion levels. Those wireless headphones got even better THD than sennheiser HD 600 (reference wired headphone). Take a look:
http://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/sound-quality/total-harmonic-distortion
And by using your iPhones 3.5mm output, you really cannot compete in terms of sound quality to those wireless ones. You would need atleast good separate DAC + headphone AMP + some audio source to compete. Very expensive and even more inconvenient. And remember, talking about sound quality, wireless ones are only getting much better from now on.
-Heavier?How? Those sennheiser wireless weight just above 200 grams. (227g exactly) That is totally normal weight on a headphone.
-Batteries just dont "die unexpectedly".
-Wireless headphones have standby times closer to 30h nowadays and will only get better in the future. How much more do you really need at once? (your wired audio source, iPhone, must be charged atleast 3 times during that).
-More expensive? How much cost wired headphones + AMP + DAC + good audio source? How do you carry and power them up on a airplane?
-What firmware and protocol requirements do you mean?
-"Wireless headphones can lose a handshake with the host device. Wireless headphones can drop a signal intermittently. Wireless headphones need more frequent repair than wired". Once again, this is totally nonsense and not true.
Oh really.
"Port Washington, NY, July 28, 2016 – According to The NPD Group's Retail Tracking Service, Bluetooth headphone revenue overtook non-Bluetooth for the first time in June accounting for 54 percent of headphone dollar sales and 17 percent of unit sales in the U.S.
While the headphone category saw a 7 percent year-over-year increase in dollar sales for the first half of 2016, Bluetooth headphones saw double-digit growth with a 42 percent year-over-year increase in dollar sales for the first half of the year."
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/...-headphone-sales-surpass-non-bluetooth-sales/
And remember this happened before Apple announced iPhone 7 - without headphone jack. Next years figures will be even more different. All the major tech companies are going now wireless faster than ever before. Future is definitely going to be wireless. There's no doubt about it.
Last edited:
Just wanted to chime in and say you have no idea what you're saying. The 3.5 mm jack will always be superior on current gen iPhones. They don't even support Aptx protocol for lossless Bluetooth. The DAC driving the 3.5 mm jack is always going to output higher res audio than the Bluetooth chip on the iphone 7.
The blind fan boyish garbage is OK up to a point where misinformation starts to flow.
The blind fan boyish garbage is OK up to a point where misinformation starts to flow.
o chime
I've brought my bluetooth headphones into work today and right now I want to continue listening to a podcast on my iPhone 6, but guess what - yep; the flipping battery has just died! 
...the inconvenience of charging bluetooth earphones greatly outweighs the tangling of wired earphones any day imo.
...the inconvenience of charging bluetooth earphones greatly outweighs the tangling of wired earphones any day imo.
The biggest issue with Blue Tooth headphones are these below:
1st: You have to be careful and keep an eye the Blue Tooth headphone doesn't run out of battery and need to recharge it.
2nd: Mobile phone needs Blue Tooth on, which will drain the phone battery faster.
Those are the two biggest issues with Blue Tooth, as for sound quality I can't say I never used Blue Tooth headphones. Getting rid of wired headphone is a bad move, since wireless will require 2 things recharging instead of 1 thing and blue tooth will drain phone faster.
So to put it short:
Wired Headphones = Only Mobile phone needs recharging
Wireless Headphones = Both Headphones and Mobile phone need recharging and mobile phone loses battery faster due to headphones
1st: You have to be careful and keep an eye the Blue Tooth headphone doesn't run out of battery and need to recharge it.
2nd: Mobile phone needs Blue Tooth on, which will drain the phone battery faster.
Those are the two biggest issues with Blue Tooth, as for sound quality I can't say I never used Blue Tooth headphones. Getting rid of wired headphone is a bad move, since wireless will require 2 things recharging instead of 1 thing and blue tooth will drain phone faster.
So to put it short:
Wired Headphones = Only Mobile phone needs recharging
Wireless Headphones = Both Headphones and Mobile phone need recharging and mobile phone loses battery faster due to headphones
Yes that is true, but only in theoretical view. Highres audio vs Aptx vs current bluetooth vs AirPlay vs Whatever, is only one variable among many that affect sound quality. How about other factors? amplification? Or even ambient noise?
The only misinformation here is when talking like highres audio vs compressed is the only chain in perceived audio quality!
Just for fun i'll put it in other words with example. Which one of these set ups (A or B) have better match and greater possibility to produce better audio quality? :
A. Whatever (i)Phone, tablet or laptop with 3.5mm jack (this means totally random output specs, random output power and ohm) -> 3.5mm output -> wired headphones X (with random specs, random ohms and random power requirements)
Or
B. This years and all the upcoming (i)Phones, tablets and laptops with latest wireless audio, Aptx or bluetooth 5.0 (roughly 8 x more data transferring capability than current 4.2, if high res is your biggest concern) -> wireless headphones (with dedicated built-in AMP and DAC, perfectly optimised to match the power requirements of the specific drivers)
?
(Hint: if you want to play the audio-lottery-mismatch-game, choose set-up A)
A. Whatever (i)Phone, tablet or laptop with 3.5mm jack (this means totally random output specs, random output power and ohm) -> 3.5mm output -> wired headphones X (with random specs, random ohms and random power requirements)
Or
B. This years and all the upcoming (i)Phones, tablets and laptops with latest wireless audio, Aptx or bluetooth 5.0 (roughly 8 x more data transferring capability than current 4.2, if high res is your biggest concern) -> wireless headphones (with dedicated built-in AMP and DAC, perfectly optimised to match the power requirements of the specific drivers)
?
(Hint: if you want to play the audio-lottery-mismatch-game, choose set-up A)
Last edited:
I usually upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone, one of the few things I actually spoil myself with, but for my lifestyle really the main selling point is the canera(portrait mode) which isn't THAT much better than the 6s plus or at least enough to got through the process to buy/sell a new/old phone.
That and having the "courage" to change my user experience for headphones.
Yeah, so what part of my comment "wireless headphones are a fractional part of unit sales" did you not understand? 83 of every 100 headphones sold in the US are wired. That's sales, by the way. Not the freebies packed in with iPhone's either. People going to the stores buying headphones are overwhelmingly choosing a 100 year old technology because the new technology is inconvenient and doesn't sound good.
Oh there is a ton of doubt about the future of headphones being wireless. See, wireless headphones have been around since the early 1980's and they still suck for the same reasons. Inconvenient. Poor battery life. Constant need for recharging. Weight. Hiss. Dropouts. Disconnects. Protocol incompatibilities.
People have had 30 years to judge wireless headphones and despite the massive growth of portable audio players they still can't generate a measly 20% of unit sales. It's the classic case of an industry trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. Headphone wires simply aren't that big a deal. 24" of a cable that weighs less than a stick of gum connecting ones ears to ones shirt pocket or armband simply isn't worth spending money and charging time over.
BJ
Last edited:
Look, firstly at the end of post #715 you didn't say "wireless headphones are a fractional part of unit sales" you said "they still only represent a small fraction of headphone unit sales". If you are going to quote yourself, please, atleast use the exact words, okay?
17%(and growing, source: http://www.techradar.com/news/audio...s-booming-after-iphone-7-announcement-1328182) in unit sales is allready very significant and the fact that "bluetooth headphone revenue overtook non-Bluetooth for the first time in June accounting for 54 percent of headphone dollar sales" is even more.
Secondly, This isn't 1980's, its allmost 2020's. Tech has progressed with wireless and Apple is going to move also lightning connector in very near future, (source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspe...t-massive-gamble-lightning-port/#76b84f8d3538). Then you have to use wireless headphones with them. The raw fact is that wireless is the future and wired is going to be "niche" just like vinyls or CDs in the past. Like it or not.
[doublepost=1483903751][/doublepost]
And your source is...?
Last edited:
Here, let me do the same thing:
If Apple invented a brand new iPhone that a) never needed charging, b) had better performance, and c) was significantly cheaper than the current iPhone wouldn't we be ecstatic?
BJ
- Status