What is the BEST Portable Solution? Musical bliss where ever you are in World?

caesar · Jun 28, 2015

When you are traveling, you cannot bring your Wilson Alexandria, your MBL, your NOLA, or Scaena system, regardless of how much money you have. And even if you could throw them in your suite and set them up, what about when you are on a plane or hiking? So what is the best portable digital solution?

Is it possible to access your NAS remotely and pull music from it? And then play it on a Chord Hugo or another killer portable DAC/ headphone amplifier?

Or should you pre-load your Astell Kern or Aurender Flow? I imagine these would be better than the iphone dac playing high res files using the Onkyo app?

Any other killer portable DAC/ headphone amplifiers other than the Hugo? And are there any other portable one box units out there better than Astell & Kern and Aurender?

What is the best overall solution?

amirm · Jun 28, 2015

When I am traveling but have internet access, I stream my music from Amazon cloud since that is where I buy all of my CDs. You can set up your NAS to access it remotely but you have to punch a hole in your router to access it, setup reverse DNS, etc. A cloud service is a much better solution if absolute fidelity is not required which is the case when I am in a hotel room and such. Streaming uncompressed music from your home will not work in a lot of hotel rooms with their limited bandwidth especially during peak hours after 5:00pm.

With respect to vacation houses and such, I mirror my library so I have it in both places on the servers. Have thought about centralized servers for both homes but been too lazy to implement

. Uplink speed used to be a problem with my old DSL which was less than 1 mbit/sec. But now I have 20 mbit/sec so that is not a barrier anymore.

With respect to playback hardware, my new HP laptop has a very decent headphone amp section that is noise-free. It is indeed where I did a lot of my critical testing of high-resolution audio vs resampled audio that I post here. With good pair of in-ear monitors (I use Shure and Etymotic), it is definitely good for hotel listening.

JackD201 · Jun 28, 2015

When I travel I don't listen to music in the car or bus. I like to get immersed in wherever I happen to be or happen to be passing through. Even on a plane I opt for video rather than music since altitude changes screw up my hearing anyway. I do listen to music back at the hotel room or pool or beach side when vegging out. In room I use my laptop with a USB dac/amp my go to being a GO 1000 with either etymotic IEMs or a compact set of V-Modas Crossfades. On the beach it's usually my phone using bluetooth to a bluetooth speaker. To date I've yet to come across a blue tooth speaker that really sounds good and is small and portable. Maybe someone will find a way to bend physics' rules and make one. I'm to holding my breath though. Alternatively I do carry mini TRS to RCA jacks and pretty often I'm allowed to jack in to the resort's system. My beach music selection is always trusted and often I'm asked if I could leave 'em a playlist or two. Usually I do.

NorthStar · Jun 28, 2015

When I travel I am the musician, the one who creates his own music...I always carry @ least one harmonica, often more than one, a flute or two, and sometimes a guitar. I never listen to music while travelling, I never carry headphones.
{Driving, while alone, yeah, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, CCR, Queen, Led Z, Jazz, Blues, Classical music.}

I also hate Androids, tablets and laptops when I travel, I love talking/communicating with people directly around me...that human exchange touch.

* No headphones, ever.

rblnr · Jun 29, 2015

When I travel I don't listen to music in the car or bus. I like to get immersed in wherever I happen to be or happen to be passing through.

I'm pretty much the same, like to be where I'm at so to speak. So, not a big headphone guy, BUT, on planes and working out, I'm a user. For planes, primarily, and after some years of equivocation, I finally broke down and spent the $$$ for a pair of custom-fit IEMs -- the JH Audio 'Angie'. The fit and seal is terrific, so plane noise is greatly diminished w/o having a pair of cans on my head. Less cumbersome and makes a possible snooze easier. I feed these w/a Fiio X5 portable player -- up to 256mb of storage via its two miniSD slots. Plays any format, works as a USB DAC -- inexpensive for what it is. Handy at parties as well. Good sounding rig, all pretty compact. I also have a relatively old Ray Samuels 'Shadow' portable amp, about the size of a matchbox, but not sure it's really any better than straight out of the X5.

Working out, I use an iPod Nano connected via bluetooth to Jaybird Bluebuds X. About as small, unencumbering, and lightweight a rig as you can get, and the Bluebuds sound surprisingly good. Don't know what opamp they use but they're stupidly powerful-sounding for their size/price and have very decent battery life. Key with these is to get some if the Comfy foam earpieces -- for me anyway, a tighter seal than the included earpieces, and they don't pop out when I run.

Both of these rigs require old school syncing, which mean I update them rarely. No biggie.

DEV · Jun 29, 2015

After trying numerous I went for a AK240 - tried numerous and in the end my choice was have both ear buds and can's

"Sure SE846 using Silver Dragon V3 balanced cables" ear buds
"HD 800 using Black Dragon V2 balanced cables" for can's and most defiantly works nicely with the 240.

Both work exceptional and provide the mobility usage I was after.

KeithR · Jun 29, 2015

must confess I really want an A&K...just wish you could stream Tidal on the lower price point versions.

Hi-FiGuy · Jun 29, 2015

I use PLEX to access my music on my home server, I have music on my IPOD, music on my Note4 but mostly while traveling I stream Pandora and Netflix as there is always to much activity to consider critical listening, that's why you are traveling right!
If its anything involving hotel rooms, I am only there to sleep, otherwise I am out doing things. I am either doing work related things or if no work, scoping out the local terrain and wild life.

Hi-FiGuy · Jun 29, 2015

Don't you just love when you are on a plane or train or what ever mode, even sitting having a bite, and the music you are listening to matches what is going on visually around you, love that shiz!

rblnr · Jun 29, 2015

I think our brains do a nice job of syncing them up.

Johnny Vinyl · Jun 29, 2015

I prefer watching video when I travel.

rblnr · Jun 29, 2015

Long flights I do some of both.

amirm · Jun 29, 2015

Hi-FiGuy said:
If its anything involving hotel rooms, I am only there to sleep, otherwise I am out doing things. I am either doing work related things or if no work, scoping out the local terrain and wild life.

Most of my travels used to be international so i would be up in the middle of night with nothing else to do but listen to music, and spend time online, checking email, working on presentations, etc. There was no where to go, other than when I was in Japan and would leave at 5:30am to get sushi for breakfast.

seeteeyou · Jul 13, 2015

Tera-Player as the source

http://www.headfonia.com/an-interview-with-charles-altmann/

MASS-kobo 404 as the amplifier

https://www.facebook.com/groups/headfi.org/permalink/10153549526694736

Crystal Cable Dreamline Plus as the interconnect

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=295721847297426&id=266187900250821

Sometimes I would switch to another Hugo rig, otherwise I'm happy with NOS Philips R2R DAC to transportable amp that could drive demanding cans with plenty of power. It's similar to a combo like this

joelha · Jul 16, 2015

FitEar 334 IEM + AK240 DAP + Chord Hugo

For portability, and by that I mean the ability to carry the items on to a plane, it just doesn't get any better . . . unless of course you get the new AK380.

Joel

Hew · Jul 17, 2015

Jriver Gizmo on my phone streaming from my home server. Nice thing with Gizmo is you can set the quality of your stream at 64 or 128 or 320 kbs or even cache your playlist. The reliability and sound quality via headset or through the car stereo was surprisingly good. Only other requirement is unlimited data access on your phone and you are good to go.

caesar · Jul 17, 2015

joelha said:
FitEar 334 IEM + AK240 DAP + Chord Hugo

For portability, and by that I mean the ability to carry the items on to a plane, it just doesn't get any better . . . unless of course you get the new AK380.

Joel

Thank you. Out of curiosity, how do you connect the AK 240 to the Hugo?

caesar · Jul 17, 2015

Gentlemen,

How do you punch a hole in the home network to be able to pull the music files when you are mobile?

Asamel · Jul 17, 2015

PONO! With Sennheiser momentum headphones.

Lee · Jul 17, 2015

Some suggestions...

The Chord Hugo has amazing sound. A genuine reference for portable headphone DAC/amps.

The new AK slim portable for $499 is really nice.

For even more convenience, the new iPhones have decent sound but do download Denon Music Player and Cardas Clarifier for even better sound.

Headphones, IEMs and earbuds are a more personal choice but for headphones I like the hifiman brand, the Mr. Speakers brand, the upper end Grados and some Audeze cans-the EL8s are nice for closed backs. For IEMs, I like JH Audio. For earbuds on the cheaper side I like the Carat One Tittas, my main travel pair. Lovely midrange on those.

What is the BEST Portable Solution? Musical bliss where ever you are in World?

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