
John Gruber Misses the Point About Lightning Headphones - Ansibull37
https://medium.com/@stevestreza/john-gruber-misses-the-point-completely-about-lightning-headphones-45d67af821da?source=user_profile---------1-
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elmarschraml
The headphone port is inherently analog - more like power than VGA.

With VGA, it made sense to switch to digital ports once the displays went all
digital (flatscreens). With VGA, you were converting a digital signal to an
analog signal just to send it over the wire, where it got converted back to
digital to drive the display.

But speakers or headphones are analog devices, they need analog voltage to
make membranes move back and forth. The analog headphone port directly drives
the speakers, whereas any digital port needs a chip inside the speakers to
convert the digital signal to analog. It makes much more sense to have a
single DAC (digital-to-analog converter, or "soundcard") inside the phone,
than to have a separate one in every single pair of headphones.

Granted, you could argue that a digital signal travels better over the wire,
or that the user could choose to use headphones with better quality DACs. But
for all practical purposes, the analog headphone port works fine, and when it
comes to standards, open and universal wins over the highest quality any time.

~~~
agumonkey
Very good points. Digital audio links will open market for deported DACs. Even
maybe tiny generic CPU/DSP hybrids for [en]coding evolution purposes. Since
nowadays this class of chips is hitting commodity production costs ..

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snowwrestler
Apple controls the Lightning port and cables completely. They could easily
detect when headphones are plugged in (which would take a tiny passive chip),
and then serve an analog audio signal over designated pins in the Lightning
cable. This would obviate all the discussion about putting DACs and other
intelligence in the headphones themselves. It would be the exact same
headphone with a different plug on the end.

The cable isn't the point, anyway. Apple is planning for a world in which all
headphone connections are Bluetooth. Which, by the way, like the 3.5mm jack,
is an open standard that anyone can build to. That's how accessory companies
get around the Lightning port and MFi program in the future.

Wireless is what Apple thinks will be the best user headphone experience, so
they will provide a platform incentive to go that way. That is why it's like
the iMac shifting to USB and removing the floppy. Doing that gave the entire
Mac ecosystem a shove toward building more USB peripherals, and doing more
data management on the network. Getting rid of the 3.5mm jack will give
everyone a shove toward Bluetooth headphones.

You're never going to plug a cable into your Apple Watch. So if the Apple
Watch is going to start doing more audio stuff, cannibalizing the iPhone,
Apple needs their user base to switch over to Bluetooth headphones.

~~~
chris_7
I really don't understand how Bluetooth headphones can be a passable user
experience, to say nothing of _better_.

\- I need to charge them, which means toting around yet another charge - two
chargers, actually if I want to charge in parallel, one for each ear!

\- They probably weigh more, because now they include a battery.

\- They're no longer plug-and-play, I need to manually pair them, then forget
them to use them with another device.

\- I probably have to manually turn them on and off.

The only improvement is that there isn't a cable.

Maybe switching to Bluetooth will be more profitable, but I can't see it
providing a better user experience.

~~~
snowwrestler
If Apple does this (to be clear, I'm speculating), I think they would be
betting that those are problems which can be solved or improved by spending
enough time and money on engineering. They have made similar bets before.

The Internet was pretty bad at moving data around, and USB drives were big and
expensive, when they killed the floppy drive. But once the floppy was gone, it
was a race among vendors to sell the most USB stuff and improved bandwidth. It
created a market opportunity, which drove innovation.

The iPhone attacked a bunch of these restrictions. RIM thought the fact that
the Blackberry sipped data and lasted a week on battery was a competitive
advantage. Turns out users will charge daily, and cell companies will invest
heavily, if given enough incentive.

The Macbook Air shipped without an Ethernet port. It hasn't slowed it down--
WiFi just got good enough.

Of course, my thinking about the headphones is all speculation, but to me at
least it seems in line with how Apple tries to shift things around.

I mean look at it this way--if all those problems you list could go away,
wouldn't it be nice to not deal with a cord? Phones and computers exploded in
popularity once the cord was gone. Why not headphones?

~~~
chris_7
Not really, the cord is a feature sometimes. I can undo one earbud and let it
hang there if someone wants to talk to me quickly. Since they're essentially
on a string, I don't need to worry about them falling out and getting smashed
on the ground or touching a gross subway floor.

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jyunderwood
My issue with Lightning as the new audio connector is that it's not going to
be a "Standard."

Yes, headphone makers are making lightning cable headphones, but I doubt any
device company outside of Apple will use it as audio out. Not only phone and
computer makers but makers of AV receivers, amps, mixing boards, etc.

If the 3.5mm jack is the new floppy drive and ADB port, USB will be the
standard that kills it, like it killed the others.

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/10273/intel-proposes-to-use-
us...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/10273/intel-proposes-to-use-usb-typec-
cables-to-connect-headsets-to-mobile-devices)

~~~
digi_owl
Last time i looked at a USB-C analog audio out suggestion it wanted to
overload the basic USB pins with yet another task (thus interfering with
charging and data transfer) while the extension pins went ignored.

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nwmcsween
This article also misses that a large amount of people aren't tech savvy and
as such have to live with all the DRM issues. I've had to explain many times
to people as to why they could not freely listen to the music they bought on
any device.

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Someone
Combining the rumors of the dropping of the headphone jack with
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/06/22/apple-
iph...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/06/22/apple-iphone-
edgeless-display/#3d2a49111f3d) ( _" And what would help to really turn heads?
The fact its chassis is also expected to be ‘all glass’…"_)

I envision this iPhone:

    
    
      - 100% glass enclosure out of one piece
      - screen everywhere (front, back, left, right, top, bottom)
      - no connectors:
        - wireless charging
        - Bluetooth audio
      - waterproof (you would get that for free, once you've figured out
        how to close the glass enclosure without frying the electronics
        inside it)
    

Problems abound: I wouldn't know what the utility of the extra screen space
would be (yes, you cannot accidentally take the thing out of your pocket with
the back side facing you), wonder whether a device that can't be plugged into
billions of existing devices would be successful in the market, and don't have
the faintest idea how one would go about making one.

However, it is a design I would like to see Apple attempt.

I guess a version where most of the device is display with the bottom of the
device a separate part with only a lightning connector, would be doable, or at
least not completely out of reach for a company willing and able to spend big
on manufacturing technology.

If that is their vision, I can see them wanting to give up the audio jack.
Problem, I think, is that many people own expensive headphones and audio
systems that require one.

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pavel_lishin
I don't own expensive headphones, I own cheap ones - and I very badly want to
keep things that way. I'm fine buying a $10 replacement pair of earbuds every
time I snag my current ones on something, but I would be pissed if I had to
buy a $40 replacement pair.

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cel1ne
I think apple will sell cables:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11968130](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11968130)

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shaggy
I wish everyone would stop calling it an analog audio port. Yes it's a 1/8th
port, but they haven't been purely analog for quite some time.

~~~
spdustin
But the 1/8" TRS/TRRS jack (headphone / headphone-with-mic jack) _is_ analog
when it's used for analog output (headphones/line-out) or input
(microphone/line-in). The DAC is on the device side, not the accessory side.

Perhaps you're referring to the SP/DIF "hiding" inside the 1/8 jack of many
Macs?

