To listen to music on the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus or iPhone X, you either need a pair of wireless bluetooth headphones, or a pair of lightning headphones.
Lightning earphones, naturally, plug into the Lightning port and are capable of receiving lossless stereo 48kHz digital audio output from Apple devices and sending mono 48kHz digital audio input. They can also draw power from an Apple device (even if the device is asleep).
Apple's Lightning port can also support headphones with integrated digital-to-analogue converters (DACs) and amplifiers, so audio travelling through the Lightning port will pass into the headphones digitally, thus avoiding typical analogue signal interferences you get with other headphones.
We've picked some of the best pairs of el headphones available now, comprising over-ear and in-ear models, at a variety of price points.
