How Can I Use My Lightning Headphones With My New MacBook?

LukaDev wrote:

I can't find a female lightning to male 3.5mm adapter so I have isolated a workaround.
I'm not sure if it would work but consider these.
A female lightning to male microusb adapter
and, a female micro usb to male 3.5mm adapter.
It's a donglebook anyway so why not add 2 more.

https://www.amazon.com/OEM-Sonim-3-5mm-MICRO-Adapter/dp/B0060752F0

http://wholesale.onchee.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_130&product s_id=2170

Alternatively you could try buying the apple male lightning to female 3.5mm adapter and buy a male to male 3.5mm adapter and connect it that way.

Thanks for posting and trying to help, unlike some others here who offer only their biased, often belittling, opinions rather than trying to find a solution. It is indeed unfortunate that we are 5 months into the iPhone 7 and there is still no commercial solution, even being rumored, on the horizon to enable a Lightning headphone to be used with anything else.

So you're saying you have not actually tried these solutions?

The main problem I see with the first solution is that there is no power provided to convert the analogue signal from 3.5mm to a digital signal which the Lightning headphones need. So that one is a non-starter.

The second solution doesn't make sense as the Lightning headphones have a male connector, so they would need a powered female to female Lightning adapter to connect them, AND power would need to be applied at some point to convert the analogue signal to a digital one.

Again thanks for trying to help.

I'm still incredulous that there is no solution for using a pair of Lightning headphones on a Mac, 5 months after being introduced, much less any other type of standard audio port. New Lightning headphone products are being introduced at CES with only one set of devices capable of utilizing them.

And I love how some here think that it's an acceptable solution that anyone who uses the included Lightning EarPods, which are also sold separately by Apple, should be considered for use solely with the iPhone 7 -- or by extension, ANY LIGHTNING HEADPHONE for that matter -- and should carry a second set of headphones for everything else. That's the most idiotic thing anyone could ever propose to solve this problem Apple created by removing the headphone jack.

To the extent purchasing Lightning headphones expecting broader compatibility beyond the iPhone 7 and a few other Lightning equipped devices (its not even compatible with all Lightning equipped devices), and not receiving that support is a customer problem; I suppose I would agree. Any customer that would support such a company that would promote Lightning audio products (while simultaneously limiting any wired connections to Lightning only), and then not support this new de facto audio standard with all of their own products, much less any other industry standard audio device; indeed has a problem.

Is this to be the new motto: "Welcome to Apple where the customer is always wrong, and the buyer should beware"?

It's really too bad there's no way to block unhelpful responses on these communities.

Csound1 wrote:

tonefox wrote:

Summary: Apple iPods with lightning connector are not compatible with a non-iOS device. Several million Billion other earphones with standard jacks are.

Fixed

Fixed is it? "iPods with a Lightning connector are not compatible with a non-iOS device"? I don't even know what that means...

But assuming he means EarPods, do you or @tonefox know this for a fact? If so please provide a link to your source. Otherwise the original question remains.

Csound1 wrote:

The EarPods ONLY work work with IOS devices equipped with Lightning connectors, that is how they were designed to work. Using them for other purposes may not work and is entirely at your risk.

Do you work for Apple? Are you making an official statement for Apple? Otherwise, please provide links to verify your claims.

Csound1 wrote:

Read Apples documentation.

No, I do not work for Apple, do you?

I'm not the one offering opinion as fact. Do you have a link to this documentation you are referencing? Specifically the API's that would prevent or allow a developer to create such an adapter? I would happily read that if I knew where to find it. Obviously you have since you know for a fact that such an adapter cannot be created at present?