What does it mean for music listening, now that the iPhone 7 may lose the 3.5mm audio jack?

One of the biggest rumours floating around in the ramp up to Apple’s big event later today, is the fact that the upcoming iPhone may have no 3.5mm jack--the little audio socket that we’ve taken for granted, simply because it’s been around for so long.

Otherwise referred to as the ‘headphone jack’, we’ve had it on our devices from the early days of the ubiquitous Walkman, then in the feature phones of the 90s, the iPods and MP3 players of the early 2000’s, all the way to virtually all of today’s smartphones. It’s only recently that we’ve started seeing manufacturers actually edging out this truly ‘plug and play’ socket from their phones in favour of newer digital standards.

But why this transition?

The primary argument in moving away from the 3.5mm audio standard is that of audio quality. Being inherently analog, any audio signal piped over a cable that ends in a 3.5mm jack is subject to degradation that depends on the quality of the audio cable and the jack itself. Also the job of decoding the digital audio file (an MP3 song on your phone, for example) is left to the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) chip in the equipment used, be it an entry level smartphone or a high-end lossless audio player. From cheap DACs used in generic products to studio-grade ones found in high-end equipment, the quality of this decoding can vary widely and is very evident to audio enthusiasts.

Even Android phones like the Moto Z and the flagship phones from LeEco have gone ahead and excluded the headphone socket, choosing to have their devices pipe music only digitally. With this move to a digital-only audio standard, it effectively means phone manufacturers will now be putting the decision of how audio is decoded into the hands of the headphone user. Audiophiles, and people who are clued into the technology, would be happy to dive into researching whether to go with a wired set of headphones and pair it with a DAC/AMP (a matchbox-sized product that plug into a USB or Lightning port to decode audio, amplify it and send it to a regular set of headphones.) Or users could choose to simply go wireless by buying a pair of Bluetooth headphones, albeit at the cost of the audio fidelity that many wired headphone purists swear by. Either way, users will now need to put a bit more thought before purchasing both their next smartphone and headphones, if music is a big reason you’ll use it.

The Apple effect

No matter which camp you choose to back, one thing’s for certain--when Apple backs a technology it often ends up becoming the norm: from their iPod ushering in a wave of digital audio players to the iPhone setting the standard for touchscreen phones. So while we’ve seen a smattering of phone manufacturers already releasing phones with digital only audio outputs, the real wave will begin based on Apple’s announcement tonight.

Raghav Somani, CEO and Co-founder of HeadphoneZone.in, an e-commerce site that specializes in personal audio gear, has an opinion on Apple’s strategy in ditching the 3.5mm jack. “Apple is doing this for two reasons: some users may want a wireless form of listening to music, from the point of view of pure convenience. Then there are others who simply want the best audio experience, where Apple would expect discerning enthusiasts to have their own connectors, DACs etc.”

But they may also choose to ease the transition to the new standard--as part of the announcements, Apple may well introduce a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter to enable current wired headphone owners to plug into the new iPhone. With the Lightning audio announcement, there is also likely to be a slew of products from established headphone brands such as Bose, Audio Technica, Sennheiser and the like, all with Lightning support and the MFi certifications (the ‘Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod’ certification that Apple defines, which sets a performance standard for third-party peripherals for use with their devices.) Therefore many other smaller peripheral manufacturers are going to have to toe the line and come up with their own range of Lightning and MFi capable audio products.

Be prepared to shell out more

Whenever it comes to adopting a new standard, something's got to give. And in this case, it’s the end users who are going to have to shell out a bit more. No more will users simply be able to buy a pair of 500-rupee earphones and plug it into the new iPhone (not that they may likely do so, given that the new devices are likely to cost north of Rs 60,000 at launch.) Still, with even Android manufacturers moving to a digital-only audio standard, it’s likely to affect users across the price spectrum.

Whether it is having to buy a USB/Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter to use your existing headphones, to deciding whether your next pair of headphones will be Bluetooth or one that will integrate a built-in DAC/AMP, listening to music on smartphones is about to get a wee bit trickier.