[qyv]

Why? What makes digital superior in this case? The headphone is universal and ubiquitous because it is a dumb (as in terminal) device. It works on $10000 stereos and $10 children's toys without needing to think about compatibility, protocols, or interface specifications because of that.

[beisner]

Instead, you needed to think about impedance, power draw, and amplification. With a digital transmission, you move rendering the audio from the source device to the speaker itself, which gives headphone manufacturers a lot more freedom when it comes to acoustic design. If there were a universal protocol for music transmission (cough there is cough), and the digital audio jack were just as ubiquitous as the 3.5mm, it would have the same properties you mentioned. On a personal note, I actually laud the removal of the 3.5mm jack from the phone. Yes, it makes existing headphones a bit more cumbersome to use, but it is also a major design choice. Most of my headphones sounded crappy when plugged into an iPhone because it's just impossible to put a good amplifier/power source in such a slim package. This design choice forces more headphone manufacturers to consider how sound is being amplified and powered on mobile devices.