[HN Gopher] Cheap Third-Party 'Lightning' Headphones Are Often C...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Cheap Third-Party 'Lightning' Headphones Are Often Cheap Bluetooth
       Headphones
        
       Author : robenkleene
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2024-05-31 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (daringfireball.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (daringfireball.net)
        
       | Optimal_Persona wrote:
       | I discovered this a couple years back, truly the worst. I don't
       | know what kind of cynical cargo-culting fools are wasting
       | resources, designing this junk and selling it to unsuspecting
       | people who don't read the fine print.
       | 
       | I've been burned buying "name brand" stuff on Amazon too many
       | times (counterfeit garbage drop shipped instead) so for anything
       | Apple I go to an authorized Apple reseller, not ScAmazon.
        
         | lxgr wrote:
         | I don't know what kind of cynical, extortionary company
         | produces phones with a proprietary adapter protocol
         | implementing DRM to make it hard to produce third-party
         | alternatives to their first-party USB-to-audio dongles.
         | 
         | If you take a look at the USB-C adapter ecosystem, you most
         | likely won't find such shenanigans - because manufacturers can
         | just do the right thing there and hook up a DAC to a small SoC
         | that speaks the USB audio protocol directly.
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | > Actual Lightning headphones and headphone adapters have a tiny
       | little digital-to-analog converter (DAC) inside the Lightning
       | plug. It's like a little computer. Doing it with Bluetooth and
       | using the Lightning plug only for power is surely easier.
       | 
       | So how does he think the adapter ultimately converts digital
       | audio received over Bluetooth to analog audio output over a 3.5mm
       | headphone plug?
       | 
       | In other words, what makes a DAC "a little computer", but a
       | Bluetooth SoC _plus the same type of DAC_ "surely easier"?
        
         | dinglestepup wrote:
         | Just guessing, but they might mean that designing and
         | manufacturing entire digital-to-analog conversion system from
         | scratch is expensive. But using Bluetooth SoCs and off the
         | shelf DACs can be cheaper and therefore "surely easier"?
        
       | lxgr wrote:
       | Original discussion (sans the incorrect technical conclusion by
       | Gruber): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40528410
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-05-31 23:01 UTC)