If Apple was a democracy

[Midwayman]

As for BT, anyone saying it's fine doesn't care about quality. A2DP is not lossless, it's compressed lossy audio (and has a bandwidth with a best case maximum of 721 kbits/s iirc) - so you take a lossy mp3/m4a/aac file, decode it, re-encode it using another lossy codec to send it over the wire and decode it again...and then you hope your BT device has a good DAC & Amp built in...

Some devices can send mp3 and AAC directly to the headphones to be decoded there. However that's really the issue with BT. Finding two devices that support all the right protocols over BT. The transfer rate on BT is high enough to do completely losses audio if someone would just implement it correctly.

 

[CZroe]

Some devices can send mp3 and AAC directly to the headphones to be decoded there. However that's really the issue with BT. Finding two devices that support all the right protocols over BT. The transfer rate on BT is high enough to do completely losses audio if someone would just implement it correctly.

Also, there's AptX (same live-encoding digital streaming the professional audio industry uses for live streams) and Sony's LDAC over Bluetooth. Obviously, he doesn't care enough about Bluetooth audio quality to know these things.

Reasonable people know that it isn't always about *maximum* quality anyway. Sometimes it's about ergonomics (can't have your phone tangled in two wires and a shift lever while driving stick), convenience, or whatever else. For example, I have no control over what DAC and speakers my car included from the factory and I don't care about quality in the car so I'm not upgrading. Connecting with Bluetooth means I have good-enough quality to be worth using. The furthest I'd go is making sure my car BT Kit had AptX for capable devices (I had a Galaxy Note 3 at the time) and I seriously researched to see if the latest Ford Fiesta ST has LDAC Bluetooth in the Sony stereo (no confirmation/inconclusive).

 

[Midwayman]

Reasonable people know that it isn't always about *maximum* quality anyway. Sometimes it's about ergonomics (can't have your phone tangled in two wires and a shift lever while driving stick), convenience, or whatever else. .

Yah, I got a set primarily because I like to use them in bed and having the cord tug on my head when I was starting to fall asleep was really annoying and would jar me back awake. In general its freeing not to have to worry about cords though. Kinda like compressed audio in general convenience wins over outright quality a lot of times.

 

[pm]

Well, it's been six months, and I read my post up at the top of this thread and I still agree with six-months-younger-me.

I have an iPhone 6, and my wife has a 5 and one teenage daughter has an iPhone 6 and the other has a 5. Right now we are an iPhone house - although I have an Android tablet and I've owned Android phones. So I'm not some major Apple basher.

I just don't see the need to remove the headphone jack. I have a couple of pairs of Bluetooth headphones and firstly, they need to be charged, and secondly the audio quality isn't as good - it fades sometimes and it just doesn't sound as good. Then there's a lightning port dongle - and I just think this is a stupid idea on multiple levels, among other things, the lightning port is flimsy and I might want to charge my phone while listening to music. In fact, I'd rather they did away with the lightning port entirely (wireless charging, data transfer over WiFi) than get rid of the headphone jack. If we are on a quest to eliminate ports, get rid of that incompatible flimsy thing.

If the next generation iPhone doesn't have a headphone jack, I simply won't buy it and Apple as a company will have disappointed me... which I'm sure won't keep Tim Cook up at night with angst but it's not a bright sign for the future of the company when you are royally irritating long-term customers. Companies should make a profit - and the way Apple prices it's products, it's clear that they make a profit - but changes like this makes it appear that you hold your customer base in contempt and don't care what they think and are just trying to make a few more dollars off of them without offering any value.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't have a problem with losing the headphone jack, I hate wires, and went to 100% Bluetooth about a year ago.

I am almost 100% bluetooth (car, workout headphones) or wifi (Chromecast Audio) as well. The only pair of real headphones I have are some noise canceling ones for use on a plane (which is a situation where an adaptor wouldn't be a huge deal).

My issue is more those times you have to use OTHER people's technology, aka people who aren't quite as ambitious about their technology as the people on this forum are. For example, I was at a get together at a friends house and his Apple Music playlist ran out. His wife was about to put it on the (heaven help me) Beats 1 station when I go "hey I got a great Spotify playlist on my phone!" I plugged in his headphone jack into my phone and the good music flowed. It is those moments you will miss the headphone jack, syncing some bluetooth speakers to multiple devices is (to quote Steve) a bag of hurt.

At a personal level I am almost glad they are doing this because it allows me to retcon the reason of why I did a VERY un-nerdy thing of getting an iPhone 6s Plus late in its life. It means I won't have any remorse when the iPhone 7 hits, because who wants an iPhone without a headphone jack I will tell myself. If they would have launched a iPhone 7 with a headphone jack and an OLED screen and like 3GB of ram and no bezels it would have been the biggest nerd regret I had since I passed on a Kuro plasma, but Apple is doing me a solid and sparing me that pain by making the iPhone 7 a solid pass.

But I feel sad for all those iPhone users in my life who just get blindsided by this kind of stuff, like my father-in-law that bought one of those stupid expensive Bose iPhone speaker docks RIGHT before the iPhone 5 launched (whoops) or my friend who had his house "wired" for iStuff back in the iPhone 4 era (bigger oops). I am expecting some frantic phone calls from some pissed on family members when this isn't a nerd rumor but instead foxnews.com level reality, and bet by the end of the year I am helping someone who can barely use a smartphone buy one off swappa for this reason alone.

 

[Artdeco]

pm, I agree, not sure why Apple is risking such a backlash, am a little concerned they've become tone deaf, or it's Tim trying to emulate what Steve did with ports, perhaps a little of both. I've already decided to skip the next gen of the iPhone, a first for me in a long time, I went retro with my phone and got an SE, am pretty satisfied with it so far.

I think the 2017 iPhone will be a nice improvement, but that remains to be seen, less moving parts is typically a good thing, a haptic, force touch home button, smaller bezels, wireless charging is what I want, we shall see.