Desktop Portable, but what source?

[Tyll Hertsens]

You may heave seen the recent ad in Stereophile where we show the Desktop Portable with an OQO UMPC as a source. As I wrote the ad, I knew the player was a rare beast among audiophiles, but it just seemed like the perfect source for the Desktop Portable to me at the time. OTOH, we know that most folks are likely to simply use it with a laptop. We are in the process of designing the bag for this amp and are somewhat scratching our heads about what sources people are really likely to use.

If you had a Desktop Portable, what would you likely use as a source?

Here's what it looks like. We're going to make a strap and lounger like our Micro Strap:




Would you use it that way, and with what source?

[thread]

MicroDAC! \o/

[electronguy]

First, I LOVE my Desktop Portable + DAC and the HeadRoom travel bag. I found this thread just in time, as I'm currently looking at various "source" options right now.

Currently, I use the following:

HOME

DVD Player w/ Digital Output
Playstaion 2 w/ Toslink Ouptut
Workstation Computer w/ Delta Audiophile 192 (Digital Output and/or Analog)

PORTABLE

Creative Zen Vision:M (Line Out via Dongle)
Sony PSP (starting to be preferred as it offers "visualization" w/ music!)
Dell Axim x51V (Gosh, the sound truly sucks on this and I hardly use it).

The PSP and the ZV:M fit well in the Travel bag (even with the PSP's hard protective shell). When I'm not lugging around the Sennheiser HD650s, I use the Super.fi 5 Pro's (looking for something else).

IN THE MARKET

Since listening to my .mp3 files via the digital output of the DVD player, I now realize just how *bad* the ZV:M really sounds and I've almost stopped using it (I thought it was just the .mp3 quality). I've been researching for portable DVD players that include a digital output, yet I'm finding that the screen resolution and/or build quality is lacking. Seeing the UMPC in the photo above leads me to think that a UMPC may be the way to go (as opposed to an Archos 605 WiFi)--great screen resolution, and more appropriate for use at the university for "other" than music or movies.

I'll have to break out my digital calipers to get the exact dimensions of the pocket on the Traveler bag

[jpelg]

The new Headroom Desktop Portable is one cool piece of kit, and the primary reason I suggested that Headroom put their print ads online (little did I know that it is there on the site, albeit buried a few layers down). When I read that ad in Stereophile, I thought to myself two things:

1. Why the heck hasn't Headroom been talking about this on Head-Fi?????

and

2. How can I find a need to get one. The very idea of it is that cool!

I agree that a hand-holdable PC, or Tablet-PC is the perfect choice for this amp/DAC combo. They're small/carryable, have decent amount of storage (and upgradable), decent sized screen, known interface (also upgradable/tweakable), user-selectable audio software. The question is which one?

The OQO, while top-notch, is too expensive to lug around, and potentially bang up (and have to repair/replace). The Sony VAIO UX series is nice, but at ~$1200 it's too expensive too. But the Samsung Q1B for less than $775 shipped:



Now we're talking!

If you shop around enough, you can find refurbed Toshiba Tablet PC's for <$500. A little bigger, but cheap enough.

Makes me wanna buy a Desktop Portable just to have one of these neat combos.

[Shizelbs]

I am starting to conseider a UMPC, partly of which would be for a mobile source. However, I am not too sure how likely I would be to carry around an amp that would essentially double the size of the hardware I was toting around. For me, size of the amp would be the biggest factor.

[OverlordXenu]

Are you using a USB or optical output from that OQO?

And, I would either use a UMPC or extremely small/lightweight ultra-portable laptop. Such as the ultra-portable Thinkpad.

Edit: What about an Archos 605? I think it has optical out, and it may be able to use USB out...

[RedLeader]

My Nokia 770!

[lextek]

I'd use my Macbook. The OQO is very, cool. Now if there was an iPod with digital out........

[jpelg]

Originally Posted by RedLeader

My Nokia 770!

1. Severely limited in storage, especially if we are talking lossless audio files.

2. Does Internet Tablet OS 2006 ed support external USB sound card devices?

[Tyll Hertsens]

Here's a bunch of UMPCs

These are the ones I think might work reasonably.

The Sony Vaio UX



The OQO2



The Flip Start



The Everun


The HTC Shift



and The Hello Kitty Laptop



Oooops, sorry, I was blinded by the light for a minute.

Anyway, I think UMPCs are the way to go, but NOBODY I know actually has one of these UMPCs, and while I think it's the way to go, I doubt many are actually using it this way.