Apple?s decision to remove the audio jack is proving unsurprisingly controversial. I personally agree with The Verge editor who said the decision is user-hostile ( Taking the headphone jack off phones is user-hostile and stupid | The Verge ), but that?s not what I want to talk about: I don?t want to talk about subjective opinions, but about objective technical details. Many people are claiming that the lightning connector offers the potential for better audio, and I?d like to understand this point better. Can anyone clarify the technical details? I see this as, in fact, two questions:
1) What defines ?better? (larger data bandwidth?) and how much ?better? is lightning?s potential?
2) (and this is trickier / potentially less objective) How much of this supposedly better performance can the human ear perceive?
I am sceptical that lightning headphones can be substantially better than non-lightning alternatives, because most people (me included) fail to notice any considerable difference among a 192Kbs, a 320 Kbps and uncompressed audio. Even if lightning allows for more bandwidth, is this additional bandwidth really needed?
I have read comments about how lightning may make it easier for headphones to have active noise-cancelling, but I have not understood why that would be (can anyone clarify please?), plus I?m honestly unimpressed because active noise cancelling tends to distort audio, so if top-notch audio quality is what you?re after, passive noise cancelling should be the way to go; it?s no coincidence that professionals use headphone with passive noise cancelling that seal the ears blocking out external noise.
1) What defines ?better? (larger data bandwidth?) and how much ?better? is lightning?s potential?
2) (and this is trickier / potentially less objective) How much of this supposedly better performance can the human ear perceive?
I am sceptical that lightning headphones can be substantially better than non-lightning alternatives, because most people (me included) fail to notice any considerable difference among a 192Kbs, a 320 Kbps and uncompressed audio. Even if lightning allows for more bandwidth, is this additional bandwidth really needed?
I have read comments about how lightning may make it easier for headphones to have active noise-cancelling, but I have not understood why that would be (can anyone clarify please?), plus I?m honestly unimpressed because active noise cancelling tends to distort audio, so if top-notch audio quality is what you?re after, passive noise cancelling should be the way to go; it?s no coincidence that professionals use headphone with passive noise cancelling that seal the ears blocking out external noise.