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Pioneer Solves iPhone 7 Charging While Listening to Music Problem

Rayz Plus wired earphones integrate a Lightning port for charging your iPhone.

February 15, 2017
Pioneer Rayz Plus earphones Lightning port

When Apple decided to remove the headphone jack from the iPhone, it was marketed as "courage," but most people saw it for what it really is: a push to sell more Lightning port accessories (dongles!) and wireless headphones.

One of the big issues that owners encounter when using an iPhone 7 is how to charge it while listening to music or chatting. This can be achieved by opting for wireless earbuds such as the AirPods, but then that's something else you need to charge. Pioneer decided to come up with a better solution, and they called it Rayz Plus.

Both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus ($769.99 at Verizon) only have one Lightning port, so Pioneer went ahead and integrated a second one into the cable of its new Rayz Plus earphones. That way, you can plug the charging cable into the earphones cable and continue to listen to music or chat while charging.

Pioneer Rayz Plus iPhone charging port

There's two models of Rayz available: the $99.95 Rayz and $149.95 Rayz Plus, and you're going to have to spend the extra cash as the charging port is only integrated into the Rayz Plus. That's a lot to spend of earphones, though, but thankfully Pioneer included a number of other useful features to help entice a purchase.

Both models include smart noise canceling, AutoPause (music pauses automatically when they are removed from your ears), a programmable Smart Button, Eco Mode, and personalized settings feature using the accompanying Rayz app. Every set has a built-in digital audio processor and amp for 24-bit 48kHz processing, and a feature called HearThru, which passes appropriate ambient noises through the noise canceling barrier. So you'll be able to hear sounds that are important, such as a car horn or your name being shouted. I'll be interested to see how well that works.

$150 may sound like a lot for a set of earphones, but it's $10 cheaper than the AirPods ($99.00 at Amazon) , and the integrated charging port means you don't need to carry a dongle around. So you can see why the Rayz Plus will be a tempting buy for iPhone 7 ($288.00 at Visible) owners.

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About Matthew Humphries

Senior Editor

I started working at PCMag in November 2016, covering all areas of technology and video game news. Before that I spent nearly 15 years working at Geek.com as a writer and editor. I also spent the first six years after leaving university as a professional game designer working with Disney, Games Workshop, 20th Century Fox, and Vivendi.

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