RE: Replace your dubious iPhone 7 headphone dongle with this $40 Lightning adapter - CNET

[gary-melconian]

Mary, I totally gree with you on this one. We will havet o test ot se hwo this 
one does do.  I am a bit cautious when aany o these are testited out .  

-Original Message-
From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] 
On Behalf Of Mary Otten
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2017 7:42 PM
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Replace your dubious iPhone 7 headphone dongle with this $40 
Lightning adapter - CNET

Well, here's what I want to know. How about a blind test. How about the sighted 
 guy doesn't know which adapter he's using, and can he still hear the 
difference? I have some very excellent wired headphones from B and W and 
Audese, and I think they're fine with the lightning adapter. Maybe that's just 
my ears. But I don't trust this guy. Blindfold the sucker and then let's hear 
what he has to say.
Mary


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 15, 2017, at 6:05 PM, M. Taylor <mk...@ucla.edu> wrote:
> 
> CNET News - Saturday, July 15, 2017 at 11:47 AM
> 
> Replace your dubious iPhone 7 headphone dongle with this $40 Lightning 
> adapter - CNET
> 
> Let's say you dropped $300-plus on a nice set of wired AKG, Beats, 
> Beyerdynamic, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Grado, Oppo, Sennheiser or 
> Ultimate Ears headphones. Then later, you bought an iPhone 7 and 
> discovered it doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack onboard. Are you 
> going to toss your headphones to get a set of Bluetooth headphones 
> that don't sound as good as what you have now? That doesn't make any sense.
> FiiO's nifty i1 headphone amplifier and digital converter FiiO Apple 
> nixed the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7, and there's not much 
> chance it'll return on iPhone 8, but what are folks with nice wired 
> headphones to do? Sure, they could use the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter 
> which comes bundled with the 7, but that's far from an optimal 
> solution. And that's not just my opinion, it's one of the 
> poorest-rated products on Apple's own site with 209 one- and two-star 
> reviews! Apple customers really don't like the adapter.
> Now, with FiiO's nifty i1 headphone amplifier and digital converter, 
> iPhone
> 7 (and presumably iPhone 8) users have a better option. It sells for 
> $39.99 on Amazon in the US and £49.99 in the UK. (The Australian price 
> hasn't been set, but you could expect it to sell for around AU$80.) 
> Comparison of Fiio i1 and Apple Lightning Adapter Steve 
> Guttenberg/CNET Naturally, we had to compare the two adapters, FiiO 
> and Apple. Starting with a Sennheiser Momentum 2.0, the i1's bass 
> definition firmed up compared with the Apple Adapter. With "Pink Up" 
> from Spoon's "Hot Thoughts" album, the drums and vibes have a lot of 
> reverb, and the i1 sounds clearer than the Apple adapter. Not by a 
> huge amount, but the differences are there.
> The changes were more obvious when I plugged in my Beyerdynamic T51p 
> on-ear headphones. The Apple adapter sounded muted and dull; the i1 
> had more life and energy.
> I also tried the i1 with some in-ear headphones, starting with my 
> Ultimate Ears UE900, and the sound quality differences were slight. So 
> I'm not all that convinced that i1 is a big enough sonic upgrade over 
> the Apple Adapter with every headphone. However, the good news is that 
> significantly better sound is available from the AudioQuest DragonFly 
> Black ($99, £89, AU$160) and DragonFly Red ($199, £169, AU$320) 
> portable headphone amplifiers/digital converters that work with 
> iPhones. The catch: they're the size of a USB flash drive, so they're bigger 
> and bulkier to carry around than the i1.
> The i1 cable has a mic and inline controls, but call sound quality was 
> a little muffled. There were instances where the i1 didn't play music 
> at first, but unplugging and replugging the Lightning connector once 
> or twice usually brought the sound back to life. What can I say -- the 
> Lightning plug isn't the most reliable connector for audio devices.
> The FiiO i1's 32-inch (81mm) cable was too long, I'd be happier if it 
> was half that length, but as it stands, the i1 is a viable alternative 
> for iPhone owners who have a decent pair of wired headphones and want 
> something a little better than Apple's less-than-stellar Lightning 
> adapter. I'm hoping even better adapters will eventually show up, but 
> for now, I'm sticking with my iPhone 6S that has a 3.5mm headphone jack and 
> the Lightning connector.
> 
> Original Article at:
> https://www.cnet.com/news/apples-lightning-headphone-adapter-is-a-dud-
> fiios-
> i1-is-better/#ftag=CAD590a51e
> 
> 
> --
> The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries 
> list.
> 
> If you have any questions or concerns about the runni

Re: Replace your dubious iPhone 7 headphone dongle with this $40 Lightning adapter - CNET

[Mary Otten]

Well, here's what I want to know. How about a blind test. How about the sighted 
 guy doesn't know which adapter he's using, and can he still hear the 
difference? I have some very excellent wired headphones from B and W and 
Audese, and I think they're fine with the lightning adapter. Maybe that's just 
my ears. But I don't trust this guy. Blindfold the sucker and then let's hear 
what he has to say.
Mary


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 15, 2017, at 6:05 PM, M. Taylor  wrote:
> 
> CNET News - Saturday, July 15, 2017 at 11:47 AM
> 
> Replace your dubious iPhone 7 headphone dongle with this $40 Lightning
> adapter - CNET
> 
> Let's say you dropped $300-plus on a nice set of wired AKG, Beats,
> Beyerdynamic, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Grado, Oppo, Sennheiser or Ultimate
> Ears headphones. Then later, you bought an iPhone 7 and discovered it
> doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack onboard. Are you going to toss your
> headphones to get a set of Bluetooth headphones that don't sound as good as
> what you have now? That doesn't make any sense. 
> FiiO's nifty i1 headphone amplifier and digital converter
> FiiO 
> Apple nixed the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7, and there's not much
> chance it'll return on iPhone 8, but what are folks with nice wired
> headphones to do? Sure, they could use the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter which
> comes bundled with the 7, but that's far from an optimal solution. And
> that's not just my opinion, it's one of the poorest-rated products on
> Apple's own site with 209 one- and two-star reviews! Apple customers really
> don't like the adapter.
> Now, with FiiO's nifty i1 headphone amplifier and digital converter, iPhone
> 7 (and presumably iPhone 8) users have a better option. It sells for $39.99
> on Amazon in the US and £49.99 in the UK. (The Australian price hasn't been
> set, but you could expect it to sell for around AU$80.)
> Comparison of Fiio i1 and Apple Lightning Adapter
> Steve Guttenberg/CNET 
> Naturally, we had to compare the two adapters, FiiO and Apple. Starting with
> a Sennheiser Momentum 2.0, the i1's bass definition firmed up compared with
> the Apple Adapter. With "Pink Up" from Spoon's "Hot Thoughts" album, the
> drums and vibes have a lot of reverb, and the i1 sounds clearer than the
> Apple adapter. Not by a huge amount, but the differences are there.
> The changes were more obvious when I plugged in my Beyerdynamic T51p on-ear
> headphones. The Apple adapter sounded muted and dull; the i1 had more life
> and energy.  
> I also tried the i1 with some in-ear headphones, starting with my Ultimate
> Ears UE900, and the sound quality differences were slight. So I'm not all
> that convinced that i1 is a big enough sonic upgrade over the Apple Adapter
> with every headphone. However, the good news is that significantly better
> sound is available from the AudioQuest DragonFly Black ($99, £89, AU$160)
> and DragonFly Red ($199, £169, AU$320) portable headphone amplifiers/digital
> converters that work with iPhones. The catch: they're the size of a USB
> flash drive, so they're bigger and bulkier to carry around than the i1. 
> The i1 cable has a mic and inline controls, but call sound quality was a
> little muffled. There were instances where the i1 didn't play music at
> first, but unplugging and replugging the Lightning connector once or twice
> usually brought the sound back to life. What can I say -- the Lightning plug
> isn't the most reliable connector for audio devices.
> The FiiO i1's 32-inch (81mm) cable was too long, I'd be happier if it was
> half that length, but as it stands, the i1 is a viable alternative for
> iPhone owners who have a decent pair of wired headphones and want something
> a little better than Apple's less-than-stellar Lightning adapter. I'm hoping
> even better adapters will eventually show up, but for now, I'm sticking with
> my iPhone 6S that has a 3.5mm headphone jack and the Lightning connector. 
> 
> Original Article at:
> https://www.cnet.com/news/apples-lightning-headphone-adapter-is-a-dud-fiios-
> i1-is-better/#ftag=CAD590a51e
> 
> 
> -- 
> The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries 
> list.
> 
> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if 
> you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or 
> moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself.
> 
> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor.  You can reach mark at:  
> macvisionaries+modera...@googlegroups.com and your owner is Cara Quinn - you 
> can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com
> 
> The archives for this list can be searched at:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/
> --- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "MacVisionaries" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to