Sorry, but when the DAC can be tuned to the specific hardware, and the engineers know what the hell they are doing, the result can be pretty damn impressive.
This is the reason modern active bookshelf speakers like the Klipsch The Fives punch way above their weight and pull off stuff its hardware shouldn’t be capable of.
Apple can do the same thing, they have the engineers and know-how. And on top of that, the positional audio is something that requires compute power anyway.
I never argued that point. I just said that it makes no sense to make the vast majority of that processing in the headphone when your phone and computer already have specialized hardware to do it.
Also, DACs today are pretty much transparent.
For example, for positional audio and driver/amp compensation, people already do the same as Klipsch does in software on their computer. You just need a good enough microphone and then you can do it by your own using REW and EqualizerAPO, for example.
This is the reason modern active bookshelf speakers like the Klipsch The Fives punch way above their weight and pull off stuff its hardware shouldn’t be capable of.
Apple can do the same thing, they have the engineers and know-how. And on top of that, the positional audio is something that requires compute power anyway.