Apart from the fancy features that iOS11 brings to mobile users, Apple had also integrated a slew of factors that will affect the way you experience music on the iPhone X. It is common knowledge that Apple has thrown their weight behind killing off the 3.5mm but what else should an audiophile like you know about the iPhone X? Let’s find out.
1. Flac Support
What is Flac?
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Just like its more famous cousin, the MP3, it’s a type of audio compression which stores audio data.
However, the big differentiator here is that the MP3 uses lossy compression technique. It discards a certain amount of audio information in order to save file size. What you get is an acceptable quality (depends on the compression ratio) audio file at a relatively small file size. On the other hand, FLAC uses lossless compression. No audio data is removed, hence, no quality is affected. You can listen to every nuance that the recording artist had intended. However, as expected, the file size is huge and it’s not surprising to find FLAC files with size >100 MB.
FLAC-inally
It took Apple 11 iterations of iOS to finally support FLAC files. Audiophiles all over should be able to rejoice as their well-curated FLAC libraries can come into good use without another digital music player right? Not really. Let’s talk about playback.
2. FLAC can only be playback in the File app
In iOS11, you get access to file directory within the iPhone X with a File app. Strangely, FLAC can only be played from this File app. Not even the official Music app.
However, there is a workaround. You will need to download third-party apps that support FLAC, like Plex or Vox which handle the transcoding themselves.
3. What is this “W1 Wireless chip”-enabled headphones that I keep hearing?
The W1 Wireless chip (W1 Chip) is a proprietary chip that is designed by Apple that is based on existing Bluetooth 4.1 technology.
Which headphones comes with the W1 chip?
Since the W1 chip belongs to Apple, only headphones by Apple or their close partners such as Beats have the chips installed. Airpods Beats Solo3 Wireless Beats PowerBeats3 Wireless BeatsX Beats Studio 3 Wireless
4. Is it better than Bluetooth?
Well if you are using iPhone X, then the answer is YES. Along with the Bluetooth 4.1 streaming and power management, the W1 Chip is specially tuned to work seamlessly with Apple devices. Anyone who uses normal Bluetooth headphones will recognize the unstable connection between wireless headphones to the mobile phones and also the painful pairing process. With the W1 chip, the synchronization is almost a one-touch process.
5. Must I only get headphones with W1 chips to work wirelessly on the iPhone X?
Of course not. You can still use Bluetooth-enabled headphones to work with the iPhone X but you will have to make do the manual pairing process.
6. Do my headphones with W1 Chip work on Android phones?
Yes. Just without the magic of the seamless pairing of devices. Wall-garden, baby.
7. Can I enjoy my FLAC files with headphones that have W1 chips?
Sadly, due to wireless transmission, Apple still does AAC audio transcoding which converts the lossless audio into a lossy one. So it’s kind of back to square one.
8. Screw this, I want to enjoy my FLAC with no interference
Yes, you can. All you need is a Lightning-enabled headphone. In this way, no audio transcoding is needed, hence, maintaining the lossless state.
9. Erm, I do not want to buy another headphone. I just spent my salary on my endgame.
Of course, Apple has already calculated this move and had come out with a 3.5mm to lightning adapter.
How about listening to music and charging my phone at the same time?
We got you. This Baseus adapter allows you to do precisely this two things at the same time.
10. OPUS support
Apart from FLAC, the iPhone X will support the OPUS format too. An advantage of OPUS is its excellent audio quality achieved at low bitrates. Together with low latencies, OPUS is an excellent medium for music and speech transmission. You will find the usage suitable for storage and streaming applications.
