Headphones which do 24/96 DAC will be the cool thing. Just taking the digital out of the I devices and doing in house headphone DA.They will wait till they sell everyone 48 kHz models then release the good ones.lol
Doing it in the headphones would effectively result in a cable-less process leading to higher SQ!
Yeap, classic Apple, re launch something that was unsuccsesfull years ago with their "personal touches" used as a front to sell a more expensive product, force the now "hooked" masses into upgrading
I'm not opposed to Apple pushing a High Res format forward, nor am I opposed to them starting a line of Headphones with amp/Dacs on board I am how ever opposed to over complicating music playback, in a sense it's simplified, but when one of those headphones goes down, will apple offer to fix it? If so kudos to them,
it'll be interesting to hear how these new devices sound
It absolutely will be but I don't think Apple will be able to make sound quality "cool" They can advertise it as being" ultra high, none compressed, studio quality" just like beats has done but it's a lot more profitable to advertise your products like that without actually pouring money into the R&D to make them sound that way. All the money they would pour into making headphones sound amazing would be a waste of money when they could change nothing and still sell 99.999% as many cans.
I don't think sound quality will ever be something that a 'mainstream' market is really concerned with. Could you imagine average consumers with 24/96 tracks? "This is bull, I can only fit 200 songs on my phone."
I seriously doubt it. IIRC companies that want to make DACs for apple products currently need to get some licencing rights or something. I'm sure someone here can explain it much better than me.
I don't think this is true any longer. I can attach my iPod Touch 5G to my Schiit Uber Bifrost USB DAC using a Lightning CCK cable and a powered USB Hub. Works perfectly. I believe in IOS 7, possibly somewhere along IOS 6 that Apple adopted a proper USB Audio Spec 2. I've also attached it to USB Audio Spec 1 DACs as well. Apparently someone at Apple came to their senses.
It absolutely will be but I don't think Apple will be able to make sound quality "cool" They can advertise it as being" ultra high, none compressed, studio quality" just like beats has done but it's a lot more profitable to advertise your products like that without actually pouring money into the R&D to make them sound that way. All the money they would pour into making headphones sound amazing would be a waste of money when they could change nothing and still sell 99.999% as many cans.
I don't think sound quality will ever be something that a 'mainstream' market is really concerned with. Could you imagine average consumers with 24/96 tracks? "This is bull, I can only fit 200 songs on my phone."
The only positive trend I see is that their iPods and iPhones have had a slow and gradual change into ruler flat audiophile units. Not saying 48 kHz is that great but the iPhone 4 and Touch iPod 5 sound good to my ears. So I think they are moving in a low level audiophile direction but spending money on all the new developments that you hear about in iOS 8 like home network controlers for your toaster.
I merged both threads on this. I strongly recommend watching the interview linked in the post below if you want to understand what went on and what is going on.
Take a look at the whole interview on Re-Code and listen carefully to what is said... You'll be horrified that Eddy Cue says Beats built "incredible headphones"... we need to take him to task on twitter for that one (@Cue) ... but keep going, most of the discussion is not about headphones, but rather around music, the industry and what Beats brings to Apple.
This is another Pono'esque indication that the industry understands there is a desire for better quality out there.
What was said that resonated with me:
Apple just spent a lot of money (3B) to improve Music on their platform. They're serious.
They bought people with "Ears" who can listen critically and help Apple's engineers make their hardware sound better.
They bought a discovery/curation service run by true professionals - people who know music.
So, for the vast majority of users out there this will hopefully lead in a year or three to a new line of Macs, iDevices and iTunes which will significantly improve the DACs etc, and provide a much better way to discover new music.
Iovine is also looking to "fix" the implosion of the music industry by reinvigorating it ala Neil Young.... which may be a taller order.
Apple is clearly looking to innovate around the Music experience. Good for us.
Pretty sure Iovine and his boys don't listen on Beats.... and pretty sure they'll push for the entire music delivery from encoding to sound-waves to suck a hell of a lot less... 3B less.
Oh yea, HEY my phone now controls my house! SUCH a safe idea! yea... no me gusta. I still like having analog systems in my home, but that's not relveant to thread
non the less, let's hope we see a reVamp of itunes in the furture
I am sure the aim is to eventually have all our heads connected to the iCloud. Then we can be in many places at the same time and have are thoughts synchronised! The Beats acquisition is starting to make sense.
I'd like my head to be connected to the iCloud. Then I can be in many places at the same time and have all my thoughts synchronised! A Beats headphone that could do that would be truly amazing.
Everybody chill out. We will know when and IF Apple will do something, when they do. I wonder how so many people get so excited or angry about something hypothetical. The only fact is that even for existing iPhones, iPads you will be able to use the lightning port in a batter and new way. That's it. New feature for existing hardware. What's not to like....
I have watched the video and from my perspective it seems like Apple is trying to fix the music industry with this acquisition. Essentially it is a battle about quality, copyright and compensation, a model that was broken with the advent of the iPod with MP3 music and one that the industry have been unable to fix since then. You could argue that it was broken before then.
Essentially they are arguing that music has become a fast food industry and Apple would like it to become restaurant food again with the promise that people would pay good money for restaurant food and compensate artists accordingly. Artists don't want to create restaurant food whilst being compensated with fast food money. It is kind of a chicken and egg problem. Apple is hoping through the leverage of Beats products to get end users to want a taste for restaurant food, that it will kick start this process, and that having the possibility of enjoying your higher class food anywhere will make it irresistible and that everyone will be happy. I guess its tough to say whether this will happen. People like fast food.
Oh yea, HEY my phone now controls my house! SUCH a safe idea! yea... no me gusta. I still like having analog systems in my home, but that's not relveant to thread
non the less, let's hope we see a reVamp of itunes in the furture
When not in striking range of WiFi your Mobile minutes will skyrocket if you listen to music in the cloud. Most carriers have dumped the all you can eat plan for cellular data. Living in the cloud with music will be too expensive for most people. Unless this changes very soon, this will be problematic for that business plan.
When not in striking range of WiFi your Mobile minutes will skyrocket if you listen to music in the cloud. Most carriers have dumped the all you can eat plan for cellular data. Living in the cloud with music will be too expensive for most people. Unless this changes very soon, this will be problematic for that business plan.
that is some what true, but you do know that there is a new wirless standard right? 802.11ac, 3 times as fast as the N standard with more range... :\ with home wireless interenet moving to "5g" speeds there's a chance we will start to see more celluar plans running of wifi, as opposed to those big ole celluar towers, but for now yea mobile plans are going to guage their customers
that is some what true, but you do know that there is a new wirless standard right? 802.11ac, 3 times as fast as the N standard with more range... :\ with home wireless interenet moving to "5g" speeds there's a chance we will start to see more celluar plans running of wifi, as opposed to those big ole celluar towers, but for now yea mobile plans are going to guage their customers
Last summer I got my wife into streaming with Google All Access. She didn't listen to the part I explained about caching playlists onto one's device when at home on wifi. She tore through 2 GB in just a couple of days at the beach. Now she knows better, explore the cloud at home on wifi and listen to cached playlists or cached albums when on the road.
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