Any audiophiles care to weight in on this? The article makes mention of quality for the lightning adapter, but I've heard that the human hearing range and other factors can often make it such that these things don't matter to anyone except exceptional individuals.
I spent $450 on mid-range earphones (Shure SE315) and custom-made sleeves at an audiologist.
Even though I'm old and have some hearing-loss from the military and outdoor activities, I am able to tell the difference between sound files encodings on familiar music. Also, I can hear on my Macbook Pro when the amplifier circuits get power - there's an audible hiss.
If I can hear it, someone younger can almost certainly hear it, if they've trained themselves in how to listen and don't try and multitask.
Fair enough. I wasn't really trying to dig at overall quality of headphones, but rather the quality of the connectors and the fact that the 3.5mm connectors probably aren't the problem for these ranges.
The 3.5mm connector is not a problem (excepting cases where it's been damaged, has environmental crud on it, etc). The problem I've noticed (the hiss) is from analog signals being generated either too far away from the connector, or without adequate shielding against ambient electronic noise.
One thing that hasn't been discussed is that of power. Does the Lightning connector have the ability to pass enough current to the external DAC to drive large over-the-ear headphones and generate respectable bass without distortion? Or will the headphones require it's own battery (AAA or rechargeable)?
It's total nonsense. The connector is not the problem with the quality, you would need something like $5000 drivers before the connector is the problem.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 23.3 ms ] threadEven though I'm old and have some hearing-loss from the military and outdoor activities, I am able to tell the difference between sound files encodings on familiar music. Also, I can hear on my Macbook Pro when the amplifier circuits get power - there's an audible hiss.
If I can hear it, someone younger can almost certainly hear it, if they've trained themselves in how to listen and don't try and multitask.
One thing that hasn't been discussed is that of power. Does the Lightning connector have the ability to pass enough current to the external DAC to drive large over-the-ear headphones and generate respectable bass without distortion? Or will the headphones require it's own battery (AAA or rechargeable)?
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/173743/what-t...