3 ms·

The headphone jack is beautifully simple, DRM free, sounds good enough even for audiophiles and has been around for over 100 years. Buying a decent pair of head

by willtim 10y ago

The headphone jack is beautifully simple, DRM free, sounds good enough even for audiophiles and has been around for over 100 years. Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. Buying "lightning" anything, much less so.

tarikjn 10y ago
You don't necessarily have to buy lightning headphones (I wouldn't) or stop using the audio jack. Audiophiles have already been using lightning to audio jack DACs, even when the iPhone still had a jack port, for superior audio quality. You can also connect your jack headphones to a clip-on bluetooth DAC. So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly.
- saghm 10y ago
  > So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. I feel like "usually" is a kind of a big leap here, since there's been exactly one phone to do this, and the verdict is still out about whether it's a "better user experience". > Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly. That's exactly what we had before when every single device had a headphone jack. I'm not sure having my headphones work normally on most devices but then randomly need a dongle for another is "seamless".
jsz0 10y ago
> Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. The funny thing is they'll probably come with a quarter inch adapter because a lot of Pro audio gear and some of the highest quality vintage stereo equipment ever made only have quarter inch jacks.

3 ms·

The headphone jack is beautifully simple, DRM free, sounds good enough even for audiophiles and has been around for over 100 years. Buying a decent pair of head

by willtim 10y ago

tarikjn 10y ago
You don't necessarily have to buy lightning headphones (I wouldn't) or stop using the audio jack. Audiophiles have already been using lightning to audio jack DACs, even when the iPhone still had a jack port, for superior audio quality. You can also connect your jack headphones to a clip-on bluetooth DAC. So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly.
- saghm 10y ago
  > So nothing wrong with the audio jack, it's just that exporting it from the phone usually makes for a better user experience. I feel like "usually" is a kind of a big leap here, since there's been exactly one phone to do this, and the verdict is still out about whether it's a "better user experience". > Ultimately earphones should not be tied to a device but thought of as tied to your head and be able to switch between your devices seamlessly. That's exactly what we had before when every single device had a headphone jack. I'm not sure having my headphones work normally on most devices but then randomly need a dongle for another is "seamless".
jsz0 10y ago
> Buying a decent pair of headphones with a jack is a worthwhile investment. The funny thing is they'll probably come with a quarter inch adapter because a lot of Pro audio gear and some of the highest quality vintage stereo equipment ever made only have quarter inch jacks.