iPhone “Lightning” headsets will open up new possibilities: some examples

We saw it recently,
Cirrus Logic announced the arrival of a development kitallowing
facilitate the transition, for headphone manufacturers, from the analog jack
to the Lightning socket. So we know, the abandonment (still hypothetical) of the
headphone jack, or Jack, for the nextSeptember iPhonecould have a
major disadvantage, which is that of making it incompatible,
without an additional adapter, all classic headphones with plug
Jack, from the most basic model to the most high-end. In return, a
Lightning connector for earphones or headsets could haveson
set of advantages, including the addition of various functionalities or even a
better sound quality:

Active noise reduction

Firstly, having Lightning jack headphones means
that for active noise reduction technologies, i.e. those requiring
energy to operate, the power supply will be done directly by the
Lightning connection, from the phone. No more reduction helmets
active noise reduction with integrated battery or battery to change, like what we
can be found at Bose with the QuitComfort 25 model, for example.

New features

Otherwise, as the English newspaper points out
Business Insider, which says headphones powered by Lightning also says
new possibilities offered. For manufacturers specializing in
activity tracking, this would be particularly interesting, since
the power supply could allow the addition of various sensors in the
headphones, to record new data. Carl Alberty from Cirrus
Logic cites in particular the recording of the intra-aural heartbeat
using the emission of an infrared light beam.

Others highlight an opening at the level of virtual reality, with
head position tracking technologies that can
be integrated into helmets, as well as accelerometers and sensors
gyroscopic.

High audio quality

Finally, using a Lightning connection requires a conversion
digital-analog sound before it reaches the ears. And
while we tend to use digital music files better and better
defined (Apple has been waiting for some time on a new
high-definition music file format), as shown in the development
high quality streaming (Qobuz and Tidal in particular), it could be
interesting to no longer use the iPhone audio converter to
prefer the one offered by a manufacturer of Hi-Fi equipment and thus
have a much better defined sound(provided that the
source file is of good quality). And by the way, who says food also says
more power and therefore more sound volume.

So if a lot (dont
hundreds of thousandshaving signed the petition against the removal of
the headphone jack) may be reluctant for the moment to such a change
(still hypothetical for the moment, let's remember),
using the Lightning jack for headphones and earphones may not
be such a bad idea, upon reflection. What do you think?

Source

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.