According to 9to5Mac, Apple has introduced new specifications in its Made for iPhone program, allowing manufacturers to use the Lightning port for their headphones, rather than the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack.
There are two configurations for headphones in the specification. One uses minimum components, and will behave the same as existing 3.5mm headphones. The second however allows complex features including active noise cancelation. The Lightning port can give power to the headphones if needed, which should allow louder and more detailed playback through headphones. Many audiophiles use portable headphone amplifiers for their headphones, allowing them to use external power sources to power their headphones. This connection ability would remove some of the need for those amplifiers.
The output from the Lightning port will be digital, which will also appeal to audiophiles, who can use their own DACs for their headphones and likely give them a higher quality sound.
It’s unlikely that Lightning ports will be used for most headphones though – at least at the moment, iPhones have 3.5mm jacks and there’s no reason for more basic headphones to switch to a proprietary standard.
