> Besides, with only Apple earbuds currently supporting the Lightning audio connection, the only way to connect an iPhone 7 to a recording or mixing device will be over the suboptimal Bluetooth connection or a dongle provided by Apple.
If you are recording stuff from your iPhone using the 3.5mm jack you are already suboptimal perhaps even to the bluetooth.
For one you are going through the iPhone DAC (luckily the iphone DACs are pretty descent) then through a generally crappy mini amplifier. If you are doing this you are expecting suboptimal or really don't care about the music quality. I'm not audiophile and hardly care about extreme music quality but If you are mixing/recording you shouldn't be adding artifacts.
If you do care about quality recording you either tranfer content off the iphone, bypass the phone jack (aka amplifier), or bypass even the DAC (and get a stream directly). There are several products that already do this on the market for the existing iPhone.
(It would be nice if some one would comment instead of downvoting. I don't know if my comment is inappropriate or factually wrong... or just in the way... seriously who records stuff off their iPhone? I'm not disagreeing with the intent of the article just that I doubt audio/music experts are going to be affected by this change)
> If you are recording stuff from your iPhone using the 3.5mm jack you are already suboptimal perhaps even to the bluetooth.
This isn't true at all, unless your hardware is legitimately bad. All but the worst cables and amplifier chains can carry a 20 kHz signal (again, we're talking audio here -- that's basically D/C to modern electronics) at better than the ~45dB signal/noise ratio needed by the ADC on the other side.
And bluetooth isn't in general lossless. If the codec sets match, it's theoretically possible to send a music file directly over an A2DP pipe, but in practice I find almost all audio gets re-encoded for the transfer. In my car, I actually get significantly clearer music with the jack than I do over bluetooth.
I've observed a lot of ground loop problems in cars with a smartphone connected to a stereo line input and also to a USB charger. Some of the USB supply return currents pass through the shield of the audio cable and nastiness ensues.
Cars are one of the worst environments for analog electronics due to massive interference from spark plugs (basically wide band RF emitters), along with bad power from the alternator and high currents through the chassis ground.
I don't know about the iPhone, but many portable devices use a class-D amplifier on the headphone output for battery life, and most class-D amplifiers struggle with high-frequency reproduction.
I agree most usages of bluetooth are not going to be good (hence why I said "perhaps"). However I have a Cambridge Audio DAC with a bluetooth adapter that does have aptx and A2DP support. Does it sound better than the straight 3.5mm? I think so but that is probably because I think I like (cringe) upsampling :).
Of course in the car everything sounds like garbage to me. I don't have the speakers nor the attention span nor the multitasking ability to notice it.
That being said interference is always noticeable.
I think you are factually correct and pointing out an over-reach by the EFF regarding the framing of the subject. The EFF likes to narrow an argument down to the point where they can safely ignore individual caveats, preferring to portray things as "universal rights" issues on the larger level. It's their tactic, from what I've noticed over the years.
I've had reasonable results using the headphone output on both iPhone and iPad with music-creation specific programs intended to create quality / usable output (e.g. Figure & GarageBand). The switch to this iPhone7 setup is bad for me because I have purchased several portable devices that use a dongle - well, now a chain of dongles - to allow me to use them with the device. As in, with my Akai LPK25, I use a USB cable to the Camera Connector, and then an adapter to Lightning, then into an iPhone. Then I use a pair of headphones to listen directly to what's going on. In the iPhone7 setup, now I need Bluetooth headphones if I intend to use one of my hardware devices, at least in theory. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, both because I don't trust the latency / connectivity until I try it, and second, I don't feel like shelling out $$ for Bluetooth headphones that may or may not be to my studio-type work.
This isn't a grand conspiracy of DRM or Apple or the Music Industry in that regard, it just looks like more of a cash grab of the 'because we can' type nature, which I don't believe should be all that surprising.
No, I don't think it'll be prevented, but I wasn't using an exterior DAC in my scenario. I've got one or two of those (e.g. Line6 something a rather) but what I mean is using the iPhone's internal processing. Use hardware to trigger (via Lightning port) and listen with headphones (via headphone port). That scenario, which is one I use frequently, doesn't work in the new platform shown.
All the other DAC-type stuff should still work provided the iOS / Apple platform will support them (don't see why not). I've just been reluctant to purchase iDevice specific audio cards, so to speak, preferring the USB standard because I use a PC primarily.
There are a lot of iOS music creation apps: software instruments, synthesizers, vocoders, effects, etc. The user of these apps will care about getting good quality audio out of them.
>If you do care about quality recording you either tranfer content off the iphone, bypass the phone jack (aka amplifier), or bypass even the DAC (and get a stream directly). There are several products that already do this on the market for the existing iPhone.
More than several, also certainly not limited to iPhone. My external amp/DAC works through lighting-to-camera USB output.
I wouldn't be surprised if someday my amp/DAC wasn't supported through the existing lighting-USB adapter. Couldn't they restrict how digital sound is output from the iPhone? That is, restricting the use of what external DAC you can use.
There was the Arcam rDock and drDock (sadly discontinued) with Burr-Brown DACS. It carried a disctintly audiophile price mind you. I know there's a few others out there.
Apple makes a Lightning to USB Camera dongle which should be able to drive an external usb DAC (app-dependent I expect, though). I assume that iOS could take away the ability to do that, however.
If you are recording stuff from your iPhone using the 3.5mm jack you are already suboptimal perhaps even to the bluetooth.
For one you are going through the iPhone DAC (luckily the iphone DACs are pretty descent) then through a generally crappy mini amplifier. If you are doing this you are expecting suboptimal or really don't care about the music quality. I'm not audiophile and hardly care about extreme music quality but If you are mixing/recording you shouldn't be adding artifacts.
If you do care about quality recording you either tranfer content off the iphone, bypass the phone jack (aka amplifier), or bypass even the DAC (and get a stream directly). There are several products that already do this on the market for the existing iPhone.
(It would be nice if some one would comment instead of downvoting. I don't know if my comment is inappropriate or factually wrong... or just in the way... seriously who records stuff off their iPhone? I'm not disagreeing with the intent of the article just that I doubt audio/music experts are going to be affected by this change)