Plug in for hi-fi sounds from a smartphone
Philips M2L Headphones
Headphones that plug into the funny-shaped socket at the bottom of your iPhone, rather than the normal headphone port, don’t seem, at first, like a giant leap for technology. We’re not talking something on a par with the invention of the wheel here. Frankly, it may not even be as big a deal as the invention of the selfie stick.
Over the next few months, though, we’re going to see more and more iPhone headphones that leave the classic socket to gather dust.
The reason isn’t – as you may already have guessed – for the pure, exhilarating thrill of trying out a new socket. Philips has always been ahead of the game when it comes to ‘serious’ headphones, and its M2L cans draw power via iPhone’s Lightning port for a built-in digital-to-analogue converter and amplifier, concealed inside the svelte body of the cans.
What this means is that the distinctly subpar amplifier and DAC inside your iPhone bow down, and allow Philips’s far superior models to take centre stage – refreshing your music just as it’s delivered into your ears.
They sound splendid, of course – especially with ‘real’ music involving people playing actual instruments and singing, rather than robot voices warbling over music played (and possibly composed) by computers.
They also – by stealth – turn your iPhone or iPad into something capable of playing hi-res audio – digital tracks stored at CD quality or above, a big trend with online stores this year.
It sounds suitably gorgeous, but getting there is still (as always with HD music) a bit of a pain in the rear end. Apple’s own iTunes app won’t play tracks at high quality, so you have to install an app from audiophiles Onkyo, and pay to upgrade it.
Then you have to buy your own music
online, from expensive, obscure stores, many of which seem to have been set up purely to confuse the unwary. It’s safe to say that most sane people will not do this.
Hi-fi snobs will still thrill to see iPhone join the party – and probably enjoy explaining it all, in painstaking detail, to the uninitiated.
This isn’t the end for Lightning-powered headphones, either. Over the next few months, Philips and other brands are also bringing out headphones that use the port to power up other functions such as noisecancelling – which may finally get rid of such cans’ irritating habit of running out of juice the moment one steps onto an aircraft...
‘It sounds suitably gorgeous but getting there is still a bit of a pain in the rear end’