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I think these look beautiful and are likely well constructed. The lack of a standard 3.5 mm audio jack is disappointing for a product in this class, but to be e

I think these look beautiful and are likely well constructed. The lack of a standard 3.5 mm audio jack is disappointing for a product in this class, but to be expected from Apple. The questions will be sound quality. A lot of people on here are already stating that they don't know why anyone would buy this product when they can get better sounding products for a similar price. I don't know how anyone can know how good these sound yet. I personally assume these will sound quite good as Apple has made a number of nice sounding products over the years. With that being said, at $550 it is competing with audiophile grade headphones so it needs to at least be roughly in that class. If it is even roughly in the ballpark of other $500 headphones it is going to be a no-brainer for a lot of people due to the integration with the Apple ecosystem and the stylishness of the build.

AlanYx 6y ago
>The lack of a standard 3.5 mm audio jack is disappointing for a product in this class, but to be expected from Apple. They quietly released a lightning to 3.5mm audio jack cable today to go with these, for use with legacy gear. It's $35 and is somewhat over-engineered (allows bi-directional usage, containing both an ADC and a DAC).
- etempleton 6y ago
  Thank you. I missed this part of the news. It is a nice addition for those that need it.
- ilikepi 6y ago
  Interestingly, that cable seems to use a 3-conductor (TRS) 3.5mm connector as opposed the usual 4-conductor one found on EarBuds. So I guess that implies it doesn't carry mic input?
  - AlanYx 6y ago
    It's an unusual cable in that it's bidirectional, but it's not full duplex. So there's no mic input, but you can use it for both audio input and output (e.g., plane audio jack to headphones OR iPhone to vintage car head unit). I strongly suspect a lightning-to-lightning connection (e.g., headphones to iPhone) would be full duplex though.

AlanYx 6y ago

>The lack of a standard 3.5 mm audio jack is disappointing for a product in this class, but to be expected from Apple. They quietly released a lightning to 3.5mm audio jack cable today to go with these, for use with legacy gear. It's $35 and is somewhat over-engineered (allows bi-directional usage, containing both an ADC and a DAC).

etempleton 6y ago
Thank you. I missed this part of the news. It is a nice addition for those that need it.
ilikepi 6y ago
Interestingly, that cable seems to use a 3-conductor (TRS) 3.5mm connector as opposed the usual 4-conductor one found on EarBuds. So I guess that implies it doesn't carry mic input?
- AlanYx 6y ago
  It's an unusual cable in that it's bidirectional, but it's not full duplex. So there's no mic input, but you can use it for both audio input and output (e.g., plane audio jack to headphones OR iPhone to vintage car head unit). I strongly suspect a lightning-to-lightning connection (e.g., headphones to iPhone) would be full duplex though.