[rufius]

You'd need the electronics somewhere in the headphone to convert the digital signal to an analog one. The pair of headphones I use the most (B&W p5) is actually exceedingly easy to replace the wire on. B&W also happens to have a very close relationship with Apple... I wouldn't be surprised to see them make wore with the integrated conversion from digital to analog.

That said, the other two pair in the house are studio monitor headphones and replacing the wire is non-trivial but supported.

[prof_hobart]

Why? There's plenty of rumours that Apple will launch a lightning -> 3.5 mm female for existing headphones to plug into. If they're doing that, there's nothing to stop them creating a lightning -> 3.5 mm male to plug into these kinds of headphone.