Apple Lightning Bolt + FiiO E11
Sep 26, 2012 at 8:38 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 11

Texpect

100+ Head-Fier
Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Posts
128
Likes
12
So, as Apple has got their new plug in their devices, I've got a specific moment to ask things about it.

I'm about to buy a FiiO E11 and an L3 LOD cable for it. BUT. How should I plug it to this new iPhone? Should I get a 30-pin to Lightning bolt- adapter or something else? Does it make the sound quality worse if I used one between the iPhone and the L3?

This noob thanks in advance :wink:
 
Sep 30, 2012 at 10:50 AM Post #3 of 11
Made an account for this specific question. Anybody know if there's a cable in the works that goes from the new 8 pin connector to an analog out? or MUST you use the apple 8 pin to 30 pin connector to use in DACs?
 
Sep 30, 2012 at 12:11 PM Post #4 of 11
i think you can only use the connector at this point because no company has produced the amp that fits the new lightening bolt plug. 
 
Sep 30, 2012 at 12:16 PM Post #5 of 11
Quote:
So, as Apple has got their new plug in their devices, I've got a specific moment to ask things about it.
I'm about to buy a FiiO E11 and an L3 LOD cable for it. BUT. How should I plug it to this new iPhone? Should I get a 30-pin to Lightning bolt- adapter or something else? Does it make the sound quality worse if I used one between the iPhone and the L3?
This noob thanks in advance
wink.gif

As Apple should own the copyrights to this new 8-pin plug and it looks like whatever connector you use with the new 8-pin needs to have apples authentication chip, Apple has a few options.
Apple sells the authentication chip to other companies (like Fiio) to make cables that connect to the new 8-pin.
Apple does not sell the authentication chip for cables and Apple makes the cables themselves (with a big markup in price).
 
You can always use a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable to connect the new iPhone to the E11.
and just wait until someone sells the 8-pin to 3.5mm cable.
 
Oct 3, 2012 at 5:25 AM Post #6 of 11
From what I've been reading, the lightning connector puts out only digital signals, unusable to any LOD. If you want to use your L3 you'll need the $30 adapter from Apple with its built in DAC to take that digital signal and convert it into something that is useful through a 3.5mm jack. The availability is sometime in October (open ended)
 
Oct 11, 2012 at 12:34 PM Post #7 of 11
Quote:
As Apple should own the copyrights to this new 8-pin plug and it looks like whatever connector you use with the new 8-pin needs to have apples authentication chip, Apple has a few options.
Apple sells the authentication chip to other companies (like Fiio) to make cables that connect to the new 8-pin.
Apple does not sell the authentication chip for cables and Apple makes the cables themselves (with a big markup in price).
 
You can always use a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable to connect the new iPhone to the E11.
and just wait until someone sells the 8-pin to 3.5mm cable.

 
Not nearly as big a markup in price as they used to make.  Their old 30-pin dock to USB cables cost them around 20¢ each to make and they were selling for $19.00.  The new cables cost $3.50 to make.  That means the adapter plug and adapter plug cable probably cost about $7.00+ each to make (and sell for $29 and $39).
 
No one will be making a lightning to 3.5mm cable that doesn't have an authentication chip and circuit inside, and in order to do that they will need licensing from Apple which isn't going to happen.  That means if someone does figure out how to mimic the circuitry and has the electron microscopy to analyze the chips, it won't be easy to pull off.  Even if a Chinese company does rip it off, it will be some time before that happens and the cables still won't be cheap.  If ever the Chinese release a module that you could use to build a custom cable, you run the risk of being sued by Apple for stealing/using stolen patented technology.  Apple wants to make the money themselves and wants to be the only supplier, which is why they came out with this proprietary technology in the first place.  From what I've read they've already made about $200 million just on extra lightning to USB cable sales (@ $19 ea.).  Imagine how much they've made in adapter sales: probably just as much if not a lot more.
 
When Apple does finally license the authentication circuitry to companies that have the financial resources to implement them into their products, you can be sure the licensing fee won't come cheap.
 
But all of that is really moot since this new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are a piece of junk anyway.  I've been one of the people selected by their engineering department to run profile logs on my phone to try to solve the battery draining and Wi-Fi connectivity issue problems.  They've ignored the other 100+ bugs I've found in the operating system.  They claim 8 hours of use and 10 hours of surfing?  I lose 1% every 2 minutes just texting, and about 15% in a few hours on standby (which is supposed to last 225 hours).  About every 5 minutes another poster posts in their forums about this problem which is affecting almost everyone on a worldwide scale.  Hopefully it's just software related and can be fixed, and isn't an inherent design flaw in the LTE radio chipset.  Already they screwed the pooch with the camera, as declaring the purple flare as normal for the phone.  Of course Apple, because we always knew the sun and other bright objects are supposed to look purple. Funny how you never made them look purple with the iPhone 4S.  (And the Panorama mode is just a joke because it does not seamlessly put the images together, there are jitters in alignment throughout the entire photo.  The only way to prevent that would be do use a tripod with a rotating head.)
 
Oct 11, 2012 at 12:37 PM Post #8 of 11
Quote:
From what I've been reading, the lightning connector puts out only digital signals, unusable to any LOD. If you want to use your L3 you'll need the $30 adapter from Apple with its built in DAC to take that digital signal and convert it into something that is useful through a 3.5mm jack. The availability is sometime in October (open ended)

 
Well I ordered the 0.2m adapter cable ($39) about a week ago and just yesterday it was preparing for shipment which means it should ship today or tomorrow.  Hopefully the sound quality is as good as the iPhone 5's headphone output without the negatives, and delivers a line level output.  The iPhone 5 seems to have the best soundstage yet, but it also comes with heavy distortion, something the previous generations didn't have nearly as much of.
 
Edit:  Correction, apparently it shipped out at 10:49 p.m. last night from China directly via FedEx and is scheduled to arrive on October 16.  It looks like Apple is not carrying these yet at their own facilities.  And with the recent riots at Foxxconn (due to the workers declaring the iPhone 5 a flawed design and impossible to manufacture to Apple's specs) and the undercover worker report, I'm not sure how fast things will get done over there.  They lost a whole day of production from the first riot a week ago, and probably lost another day from the riot this week.  The undercover worker revealed that he had to paint 4 dots on the aluminum backshell of the iPhone 5 every 3 seconds without a break in 7 hours, and required to finish 30,000 in one day, and make about $1 hour doing so.  Their dorm rooms look like prison cells, it's really horrible.  It's really a shame Apple can't find a way to make their products here.)
 
Oct 11, 2012 at 1:35 PM Post #9 of 11
I wonder what an iPhone would cost to have it built with entirely American parts and labor.  Besides the fact that factories like Foxconn's physically don't exist here, the American public could not afford it most likely, unless Apple seriously cut their profit margins, and even then it'd be a $1000+ phone.  If Walmart was full of 100% american made stuff, you'd have to be rich to shop there.  
 
Oct 11, 2012 at 2:47 PM Post #10 of 11
Quote:
I wonder what an iPhone would cost to have it built with entirely American parts and labor.  Besides the fact that factories like Foxconn's physically don't exist here, the American public could not afford it most likely, unless Apple seriously cut their profit margins, and even then it'd be a $1000+ phone.  If Walmart was full of 100% american made stuff, you'd have to be rich to shop there.  

 
A $1000 plus phone??  More like a $3000+ phone.  I doubt you'll find American workers lining up to perform slave labor painting 120,000 dots on 30,000 pieces of aluminum in 7 hours, then asked to work an additional 5-7 hours overtime.
 
If we stopped doing business with China completely and beefed up our own economy, and started producing the parts here on a massive scale then maybe we could get closer to those prices, but it would still be a $1500 phone at the bare minimum, and like you said Apple would have to cut their profit margins.  Hell, I had to pay full price for mine which was $850 + tax ($924) and it was made in China. (I'll be eligible for an upgrade when the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 comes out, if I even stick with Apple.  I'm getting tired of their B.S.)  Apple is making about 300-350% profit on their phones.  Why they haven't moved to 32, 64, and 128GB of memory is beyond me.  Flash drives are cheap.  They need to find an edge somewhere.  Their technology is always running close to a year behind everyone else's more or less, except for their displays.  There is no reason the QC on the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 shouldn't have been perfect, not to mention the faux professional reviews when the public has expressed the exact opposite.  They were working on this model for at least a year before Steve Jobs died.
 
Oct 12, 2012 at 12:05 AM Post #11 of 11
Quote:
 
But all of that is really moot since this new iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are a piece of junk anyway.  I've been one of the people selected by their engineering department to run profile logs on my phone to try to solve the battery draining and Wi-Fi connectivity issue problems.  They've ignored the other 100+ bugs I've found in the operating system.  They claim 8 hours of use and 10 hours of surfing?  I lose 1% every 2 minutes just texting, and about 15% in a few hours on standby (which is supposed to last 225 hours).  About every 5 minutes another poster posts in their forums about this problem which is affecting almost everyone on a worldwide scale.  Hopefully it's just software related and can be fixed, and isn't an inherent design flaw in the LTE radio chipset.  Already they screwed the pooch with the camera, as declaring the purple flare as normal for the phone.  Of course Apple, because we always knew the sun and other bright objects are supposed to look purple. Funny how you never made them look purple with the iPhone 4S.  (And the Panorama mode is just a joke because it does not seamlessly put the images together, there are jitters in alignment throughout the entire photo.  The only way to prevent that would be do use a tripod with a rotating head.)

 
true
im planning on getting their new ipod touch because imho theres no android device that can compete on the features and UI of it
if there was something like the samsung s3 without the phone part, i bet they would be selling like hotcakes
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top