So I decided to put together the ultimate portable rig. I travel around and work in different places. Music is also an important part of my life (I oversee a recording studio and have a home studio where I write music). Have been out of music for a while to tell you the truth (finishing a PhD and establishing a career can do that), but getting an ipod has gotten me back into enjoying music. One thing lead to another (quest for better audio, etc.) has led me to this site and my quest to put together the ULTIMATE portable rig. Why portable? Because I am always on the move and work in different places (office, cafe, studio, etc.). Also it is something that I think I can achieve financially. I read about a lot of high-end "Ultimate" systems for home, etc. and $20K for a CD player is not something I can see myself spending (well... now at least). Whereas the ultimate portable system is something that is close within my reach. But I need some more help.

So this is what I am thinking/have... Before I get into this, some of you may be thinking overkill, etc. but, hey. My view is if you are going to do something, you might as well try for the best (and if you think this is an expensive hobby, check out http://www.timezone.com). I know it is all subjective... and ultimately it is up to how I enjoy the system, and believe me, I intend to... So I am thinking of this:

Source: ?? (currently iPod). This is where I need some help. I'd like a HD based system so that I don't have to worry about carrying and changing disks, but audiofile portables aren't quite here yet from my understanding. I hope you guys can help with this.

Connector: Currently Straightwire, but will consider others (suggestions?).

Amp: Headroom Cosmic (Reference - with Base Station One).

Headphones: Sony MDR R-10, Ety 4P (with S cable)

Regarding the headphones, I am trying to cover bases regarding different portable modes. For planes, trains, automobiles, etc., the Etys are good (especially when I am traveling with my children). The Sonys are good for sitting down, working, etc. I think I will need another set for "walking around town" as the R10s may be too big/fragile and the Ety isn't good for walking and interacting with people (easy to be hit by a car, can't talk to others without taking off, etc.). I also have a set of HD600s that I may return (have 2 more weeks to decide).

What I have now is kinda modular to suit different occasions (4P with iPod sound great! Bringing the Cosmic adds some, but trades off weight, etc.).

So I'd like comments on this system. Where's the weak link and what can I do to make it better (don't really want to build my own stuff.... yet). I'd also like suggestions for a portable source, connector cable, and something that is awesome, but suitable for walking around town wearing...

Thanks in advance!

The problem I see with your proposal is that it won't be very portable. The R10 is a nice headphone and you'll probably want to take care of it. Were you planning to use it only at home? If you travel with it you'll probably want to bring it in its case--it's just not what I'd call a "throw around" headphone.

The Etymotic is good for airplanes and such but it could never be my only headphone. Once you get used to it, it does haev a distinct signature despite having a fairly flat frequency response (subjectively, anyway). I like the 4S much better than the 4P so do get the cable if you get the 4P but save yourself money and don't get the 4P at all if you don't need it. I'm not sure how well the iPod can drive the 4S without an amp and maybe someone else here can answer that but if you're never going to use it without an amp, the flexibility isn't worth the $50 or whatever.

I'm using an Ultrasone HFI-650 at work because, frankly, I like headphones better than ear-canal phones. They're closed too but don't isolate nearly as well. I'm not sure I can relate to the need to communicate with people *while* listening to headphones. If you want an open headphone though, there are lots of options. I hope you'll consider not using open headphones in noisy environments, though. In addition to it being rude to the people around you, the temptation to turn up the volume to compensate for ambient noise is too great and this will eventually lead to hearing damage. I hope you'll be on Head-Fi for a while and we already have enough opinionated deaf audiophiles.

The Cosmic is a nice amp if you like the OPA627 sound. However, it too is not really the hallmark of portability and this is why the staff at HeadRoom promotes the Total Airhead if you truly do a lot of travelling. The problem there is that I don't really feel the Total Airhead is very good. If you want something truly portable that sounds good, consider buying a META42 from KurtW or JMT. I haven't heard the portable version of this amp but I trust the opinion of those who have and I have a review around here somewhere of one of Tangent's home versions if you want more detail on why I think so much of it.

I like the iPod a lot. For an mp3 player, it's the way to go. However, it bothers me a lot that you can't get other codecs for it. Your choices are mp3 or WAV and the mp3 spec did not include a lossless setting. WAV files will chew up your hard drive pretty quickly but maybe this is ok if you dock the iPod often enough. A 10 gig hard drive can hold 15 or so albums worth of WAV files. I also don't like that the iPod does not have a lineout. I'm told that because the volume is digital that it's really not that bad if you set the volume at full but I guess the prinicipal of it bothers me regardless. The other problem I have with the iPod is that it does not provide a digital (optical) output.

The digital output matters because, frankly, the bottleneck of a good portable system is the crappy DAC that most portable devices have. I've heard the iPod and I know it's not nearly as bad as most portable CD players but I assure you that the DAC in it is still your limiting factor. A guy by the nick of aos is planning to sell a portable DAC later this year and that will be a one of a kind device on the market--it basically combines a multi-loop headphone amp (similar to the META42 I mentioned above) and a portable DAC in one product--and it's battery operated. Perfect--IF you have a device with an optical out. Some portable CD players do. Many soundcards do, including soundcards for laptops.

In my view, a laptop IS the best portabel solution. You can then get 60G hard drives instead of being limited to 10. Lossless compression codecs become available which allow you to get more use of that hard drive space. Then of course you still have the ability to play CDs too (and rip them on the fly). Of course, a laptop isn't very stealthy if you're looking for something small but it's the most versatile solution. The hard drive is a good source and I'd be willing to bet most hard drive CD ROM drives would make better transports than what you find in any portable CD player. Again, the limiting factor is the DAC.

Sorry if that's more than you were looking for. I tend to do that. Welcome to Head-Fi. Sorry about your karma.

Yes, am looking to bring the R10 around in the case when needed (maybe even add a pair of handcuffs - "we're on a mission from god" - Blues Brothers reference). I've got a traveller bag and don't mind lugging the Cosmic around (I've grown up carrying a notebook).

Will check out the Ultrasone for walking around. I like the cosmic and the cross-feed / filter options. Especially on older recordings that are panned really hard to one side. Will also try to check out the META, though.

I hope the next version of the ipod software will have a LINE OUT setting. I think they should be able to do that in the system software. That would help out a lot. Hopefully they'll add more codecs too. Anyone try the other systems? What about PCDPs? Is there a "high-end" one that is portable? Also regarding a source, I was thinking of a notebook and one of the breakout cards/boxes (PCMCIA/USB/Firewire) with higher-end DACs. Anyone play with any of those?

Really amazing that there isn't much in the area of high-end, portable amplification / player / headphones. Considering how many people travel/commute, etc. while listening to music. I also believe that more and more people will be getting into portable audio as the features, quality, and varieties of portable players continue to grow. Just goes to show how much growth is possible!

Thanks again!

How about you keep the R10s at one of your usual stops (e.g. office or whatever) and take the etys in your mobile rig?

If you work at an office, you could have a beefier work rig, e.g.
laptop -> digital out (e.g. StereoLink) -> DAC (e.g. ART DI/O) -> Cosmic -> R10s

On the move, you could get aos's PDAC with a player with digital out...

So, um, are there any hard disk players with digital out these days?

But outboard DAC is probably in the 'last 1%' category, especially when you're mobile.

Line out in software? I believe you need at least a hardware switch, since you need to switch between DAC->headphone amp->output and DAC->direct output. Can't see how you can short out the amplification section without a switch...

mcgino
Sorry. I misunderstood. If you already have the Cosmic and don't mind lugging it and those D cells around then you'd likely not find the META worth it to you. It is a different sound if you're interested in exploring it but most people would put them in the same class if they heard them side by side.

There is no such thing as a high end portable CD player. I have a Panasonic CT570 which does have a line out but does not have optical out. It's widely considered one of the best players (and is indeed much better than some of the old players like the Sony D25S that got inexplicably revived on this forum) but it's still very mediocre and even a cheap home DVD player easily bests it. The portable DAC I mentioned earlier blows it away.

The DAC is NOT in the last 1%. Source matters a lot.

I think using the notebook as a source makes sense for 70-80% of the time I'm out. I will also be upgrading my laptop soon (Radeon 9500 mobile and DVD-RW are enough to get me to upgrade) and should have a bigger drive.

Anyone have any experience with the USB/Firewire/PCMCIA breakout boxes? They look like they will fit nicely into the first traveller pouch (below the cosmic), and most have 24bit 96khz dacs. I agree that source is very important and currently my weakest link I think.

Also doesn't quite solve my "on the road/hiking" solution... I guess ipod/Ultraphone would work for that? Any other headphones suited for outdoor walking/shopping, etc.?

I would not suspect that DAC in any of the laptop soundcards or USB soundcards of comparing favorably to the PDAC or any good home DAC. However, you'll need one to get the digital signal out of the laptop regardless so it's a step you'll have to take either way.

Here's a thread with a lot of options in it that neil started:
http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/showt...light=notebook

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LOL!

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Like you did (you're the one who sent it to me), I've been using that META42 built by tangent that allows the switching of the opamps, and, though the OPA627 has a certain sound in that amp (relative to the other opamps, which also have their own signatures in that amp), I don't think it applies universally. I own a HeadRoom Max, and borrowed a hopped-up Cosmic from Todd at HeadRoom, and I can say that the META42 with OPA627 doesn't sound like those -- I won't mention better or worse here, just that it doesn't sound like the Max or Cosmic.

With so many variables on either side of the opamp, from amp to amp, I don't think that there will necessarily be much in common sonically between totally different amplifier designs utilizing a common opamp. I've got that tangent-built META42 with OPA627 right here alongside my Max, and I'd never guess, by listening to them, that there's much in common with them at all.

Jude
I agree that the amplifier design makes a difference. I never meant to imply otherwise. The OPA627 does have a signature of its own, though and I believe that signature can be heard in the META42, Cosmic and Max. There are aspects of this signature that I don't care for and I realize this puts me in somewhat of a minority view. dparrish likes the sound, Nick Dangerous likes it. A lot of people like the 843 which I think is midway between the 627 and 8610/20. JMT and Tangent I think are both fans of that one. KurtW, Jan and I tend to like the more airy sound of the AD8610. I'm not saying one flavor of ice cream is better than another but you can't swap the ingredients, hear a difference and then say the ingredients don't have a flavor. Have you gotten to try other opamps in the META42 yet? The differences are certainly there.

I'd like to hear about your hopped up Cosmic. Post about that somewhere. If you want to discuss opamps more maybe we should do that in another thread too so we don't disrupt this guy's ultimate portable thread more than we already have.

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Yeah, tangent sent me that pack of opamps. It's very cool to be able to swap them out There are certainly differences, yes. I believe there might be certain characteristic differences between opamps from amp to amp (like the OPA627 might be consistently smoother/warmer than the 8610/20 -- I'm not sure, as I'd have to try them in different circuit designs), but that it's too hard to peg a character on an amplifier based on opamp unless there's at least a certain amount of predictability in the consistency of the entire amplifier design. For example, OPA627 versus AD8610/20 in a META42. OPA627 versus AD8610/20 in a Max (I know this isn't necessarily swappable in the Max, but for the sake of the point here....).

The OPA627 has been my favorite of the opamps tangent sent for use in that META42. I asked tangent if I could send the amp to another Head-Fi'er to try, and he agreed. But one of the channels occasionally pops in and out, and so I might have to send it back to tangent first if I can't fix it myself. Jude? Soldering iron? tangent's probably looking nervous right about now.

Long story short, I'm just saying that if someone said, "I designed a new amplifier that happens to use an OPA627 opamp," I personally wouldn't necessarily venture a guess at its sound.

Anyway, you're right about the potential of thread hijack. I'm sorta doing that now, eh? I guess we can discuss this in another thread if need be.

Got the Sony R-10s. Will be spending a lot of time tonight listening to music... So far for the ultimate portable rig:

Sony MDR R-10s
Ety 4P (with S cable)
Headroom Cosmic Reference (with Base Station One)
Notebook PC (working on a USB solution)
iPod

That's what I've got so far... So is this the ultimate? What would make it better (yet portable)?

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I haven't heard the d25 but I wrote a review about ct570 vs. sony d515 and the lineout on the sony destroys the panasonic in every way. d515 has more detail, soundstage, seperation, bass etc.

Biggie.

OK. Got the ultimate portable headphones I think (thanks again Ze-Ant!). HP-1s work well on the street driven by the Cosmic. They are more rugged/robust than the wood R10s. Walked though the city today this morning with the HP-1s on and was in heaven!!

Anyone with a Headroom amp and the HP-1s try switching the polarity with the cross-feed on? Interesting effect (cross-feeding and inversing the polarity). Not too sure how to explain it psychoacoustically as it isn't a normal phenomenom that happens in nature (except for frequencies whose wavelength is 2x the distance between ones ears).

Found a good card to get good audio out of my PC too. Doubles as a recording studio (8 channel in/out, digital in/out, MIDI, etc.). 24 bit audio at 96K. RME Hammerfall DSP system.