Apple’s anticipated removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack has drawn plenty of ire and consternation, and rightly so. Along with the jack-less Moto Z and LeEco’s 2016 lineup, the next iPhone is expected to be in the vanguard of a new generation of phones that lack a slot for the most universal of audio connectors. But there will be workarounds.
One pretty good idea will be to buy a Bluetooth receiver, such as the one I just stumbled upon from Noble Audio. These are the guys that made the ultra-luxurious (and expensive) Kaiser 10 in-ear monitors, and they’ve developed the Noble BTS as a solution to making them pseudo-wireless. You plug you wired earphones or low-impedance headphones into the BTS and it connects to your phone via Bluetooth, good for up to eight hours of talk time or continuous lossless music playback.
With a built-in omnidirectional mic and integrated music controls, the Noble BTS can also be rationalized as an upgrade to earphones that don’t already have those extras. It comes with its own DAC and amplifier integrated into the Bluetooth chip, with support for HD Voice, aptX, and Bluetooth 4.0. Another thing this receiver can do is maintain a connection with two devices at once, so you can keep it paired with both phone and laptop simultaneously.
Still, it’s not cheap at $99. By Noble standards, it’s actually super affordable, but for the rest of us, there are already cheaper options available, and more are sure to emerge as the wire-hating iPhone draws nearer.