Apple dongle no elegant solution
Never has one little dongle caused so much angst for so many music fans, but Apple’s lightning-to3.5mm audio adaptor is about to become a necessary evil.
Even for Apple it’s a controversial move to rip the 3.5mm headphone jack out of the iPhone 7 in favour of its own proprietary lightning connector which now has to serve as the audio, data and charge port.
Some people applaud Apple’s decision to embrace ‘‘digital’’ sound, but that’s meaningless – responsibility for the sound quality has merely been offloaded to the Digital to Analogue Converter (DAC) built into the cable of your lightning accessories.
Apple includes a tiny lightningto-3.5mm audio adaptor in the box with the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, so you can plug in your old analogue headphones – which is handy if you’ve invested good money in top-shelf headphones with a 3.5mm plug.
There’s always the option of upgrading to wireless headphones, if you’re prepared to leap into the Bluetooth ecosystem.
Replacement lightning adapters from Apple cost $15, which doesn’t bode well in terms of the quality of the DAC, but the good news for audiophiles is Apple has confirmed this adaptor relies on the same DAC as used by the iPhone 6S’ headphone jack. This means there should be no drop in sound quality when you plug in your old analogue headphones.
Put to the test I can confirm this, using the earbuds from an iPhone 6 as well as high-end headphones from Sony, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica – the sound from the iPhone 7 using Apple’s Lightning to 3.5mm adaptor is as good as the sound from the headphone jack on older iPhones.
Plugging your old Apple earbuds into the iPhone 7, using the Lightning adaptor, sounds much better than the budget 3SIXT Lightning earbuds.
You don’t need golden ears and a taste for high-end audio formats to appreciate the difference, even if you’re streaming compressed music from a subscription music service you can hear the marked improvement when switching from the disappointing 3SIXT Lightning earbuds to Apple’s