Victor Marks
At its CES booth this year, Philips showed off its Fidelio M2L headphones, which hold the title as the world's first the world's first Lightning-connected headphones.
Earlier on Thursday, Philips made a splash when it announced the Fidelio NC1L, an over-the-ear headphone that accepts digital audio from Lightning-equipped Apple devices. But it was the Fidelio M2L, Philips' first Lightning-capable product, the company chose to demo on the showroom floor.
At first blush, the M2L looks like a regular pair of headphones, but closer inspection reveals a single cable terminating in a Lightning connector. Instead of the ubiquitous 3.5-millimeter jack standard, Philips takes advantage of Apple's newly ratified Lightning headphone standard, which provides a pure digital signal for off-device processing.
M2L comes stuffed with its own 24-bit DAC as well as an on-board amplifier, bypassing the same components employed by Apple in its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. With a standalone product, Philips can incorporate higher quality parts, resulting in better sound compared to analog taken straight from an iPhone's headphone jack.
The M2L's user interface is minimalist, with a single rocker-style switch handling music playback and volume controls. Inside, 40mm drivers sit behind plush ear cups, delivering powerful, clean sound.
Pricing has been set at $320, though Philips has yet to offer an exact launch window after missing a promised December debut.
Christine McKee
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22 Comments
$320? Man, them Beats be looking cheap!
I'll stick with my headphones. Still popular after 30 years of production, must be doing something right.
If you had the coin, though, having an external DAC would be nice. Hopefully this spreads downward to cheaper sets, or better brands. Cause Phillips is not a brand I spend $300+ for.
If you're going to spend $300 on headphones, then go all the way and spend $500 and get the high fidelity bluetooth Bang & Olufsen - BeoPlay H8 - CES 2015 interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYbc-3FEryY
Specs here: http://www.beoplay.com/products/beoplayh8#techtalk
At least those work with any bluetooth enabled device AND have a high-end amp receiver / DAC for wired situations AND a replaceable battery and some AWESOME touch controls.. Quite possibly the only super expensive headset I'd even consider these days; if I were spending in market range of $300 - $500 for a headset.
A lighting based headset is far to limited to Apple only products.. and while I LOVE my Apple products (iPhone, Macbook, iPad).. I also use non-Apple audio systems.. I don't expect this to sell as well as they would hope.
This has been an amazing CES so far with these lightning headphones, Sony ultra 4K ultra thin Google play TVs, and Ultra HD Blu-ray players from Panasonic.
Can't wait to see when Apple comes out with a TV that surpasses all of them and iTunes streams 4K.
This has been an amazing CES so far with these lightning headphones and Sony ultra 4K ultra thin Google play TVs and Ultra HD Blu-rahy players from Panasonic.
Can't wait to see when Apple come out with a TV that surpasses all of them and iTunes streams 4K.
Clearly Apple doesn't need to come out with a 4K TV...they already have a 5K iMac!
Wait, you’re still serious about this nonsense?