Apple Provides Details on Using High-Impedance Headphones With New MacBook Pros

Apple has published a new support document detailing the use of high-impedance headphones with the new MacBook Pro models.

headphone jack macbook pro article
As Apple mentioned when it unveiled the latest MacBook Pros, the 3.5mm headphone jack offers support for high-impedance headphones, which is good news for professionals who want to use the MacBook Pro with studio quality headphones.

As noted in the support document, the new MacBook Pros come with DC load detection, adaptive voltage output, and a built-in digital-to-analog converter. For some use cases, they may also remove the need for an external headphone amplifier.

The 3.5 mm headphone jack on the MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021) or MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) features DC load detection and adaptive voltage output. Your Mac can detect the impedance of the connected device and will adapt its output for low- and high-impedance headphones, as well as for line-level audio devices.

When you connect headphones with an impedance of less than 150 ohms, the headphone jack provides up to 1.25 volts RMS. For headphones with an impedance of 150 to 1k ohms, the headphone jack delivers 3 volts RMS. This may remove the need for an external headphone amplifier.

With impedance detection, adaptive voltage output, and a built-in digital-to-analog converter that supports sample rates of up to 96 kHz, you can enjoy high-fidelity, full-resolution audio directly from the headphone jack on your MacBook Pro.

Apple's new MacBook Pro models are equipped with the "best audio system in a notebook," according to Apple, thanks to upgrades to both the headphone jack and the speaker system.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro 14 & 16"
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...

Top Rated Comments

Serban55 Avatar
36 months ago
impressive in a world that Apple itself started the remove the headphone jack trend
Thank you Apple
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hyperreal Avatar
36 months ago

High impedance =/= better sound. The two aren't necessarily related.

I mean, why is this even the default assumption?
Because the hifi audio market is full of snake oil peddlers.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chancha Avatar
36 months ago
I have had a bayerdynamic DT1990PRO for on the road monitoring purpose. In the past with any Mac I either need a AudioQuest DragonFly for amplifying, if not through an external audio interface and its jack there. Just tried plugging it directly to my base 14" and can report the volume is decent. Frequency response sounds flat (which is good, unlike the AirPods). Audio MIDI reports both the jack and internal speakers cap at 96kHz / 32bit float.

This makes life much easier, for semi-professional monitoring on the pinch.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
36 months ago
That is brilliant! I'm also glad the speaker of the new Macbook is on another level.

MacBook Pro does have the "best audio system in a notebook", Apple!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
36 months ago
Is the AirPods Max “high impedance headphones”?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexe Avatar
36 months ago

This is all pretty odd. It's hard to imagine a real audio professional plugging headphones into the laptop's headphone jack instead of using a USB DAC. But apparently Apple thought there would be some marketing value in adding this feature to the MacBook Pros. Meanwhile, they give us an outdated HDMI 2.0 port and a slow SD card slot.
Why is that hard to imagine? I'm a real audio professional and I'm definitely going to try it out. If that MacBook Pro DAC can drive my headphones sufficiently well and I can rely on the sound, then that saves me one piece of equipment to carry around with me in many situations.

I don't consider this a gimmick, on the contrary. I wish professional-grade DAC and amplifiers for headphones were more of a focus on pro laptops.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)