Last year, Philips released its Fidelio M2L headphones that plug into an iPhone’s Lighting port which allows digital-to-analog conversion resulting in a cleaner, clearer sound.
Now, Philips has announced that it is creating a noise-cancelling version of headphones that absorbs power from the Lighting port and eradicates the use for batteries.
The Apple-only NC1L will be available for purchase in spring 2015 for $299.99. The headphones were on display in a showcase at CES 2015.
The Fidelio NC1L noise-cancelling headphones use the same 24-bit digital-to-analog converter as its establisher. The digital-to-analog conversion that usually occurs inside the device can now be processed by the headphones. This eliminates the analog audio signal having to be transfer through a long headphone cable – which is usually interfere with or degrades along the way.
One of the more noticeable aspects is the noise cancellation. This is accomplished by using four microphones to monitor external buzz before inverting it to cancel out background sound.
Although this is nothing new but it is duly noted that the noise-cancelling headphones require batteries to keep running. Since the Lighting port can also provide power, the headphones will not have use for external batteries.
A Philips representative said he is sure that the power won’t noticeably drain the battery life of your Apple iPhone. Apple is said to be very strict about how much electricity is to be drained by third-part accessories from the Lighting port.
Philips say they are excited about the possibilities by using the Lighting port. This is particularly because it could be able to deliver firmware and sound profile updates to the headphones through its iOS app. Another factor that the company is excited about is that users will have the ability to customize performance to better cancel noise in certain environments.