[Iron-Buddha]

Having been into portable audio gear for a few years now, I really never looked into a solution to organize and carry my gear.   Since I carry a briefcase/messenger, and almost never a backpack, I ended up with my CA Vega's in the case it came with, my AK320 in a Caselogic nylon thing, and a separate vinyl thing to carry my AK10, USB cable and various adapters.  I found the three pouches required a ton of shuffling and zipping and unzipping to get setup.   
 
So I started to look for a single pouch solution, but not any solution, I wanted it to look nice and I wanted real leather.  I tried Pelican and other hard cases, but they were too bulky and heavy.  
 
I came across the This is Ground Tech Dopp Kit Mini, but at the time, couldn't find any info on it for my intended purposes.   When the Tech Dopp Kit Mini 2 got announced, I thought now was the time to pull the trigger, but after looking into the dimensions, the new Tech Dopp Kit is 3.5" (up from 2.5") and my briefcase is only 3" wide.   The good news, is the old Tech Dopp Kit Mini is on close-out (check Restoration Hardware and a few other sites) before stock runs out.
 
Got my Tech Dopp Kit Mini v1 in Bomber today.   Oh man, it's a beauty.  The vegetable tanned Tuscan leather smells great.  The Bomber color has a nice look to it that should patina well over time.   The case itself is semi-rigid.  This will not protect your gear from catastrophic crushing and drops (you would need a Pelican or similar).   However, since I don't throw my briefcase around (it's got a Macbook Pro in it after all), the Dopp Kit does a great job organizing all my gear in one place.  It's nice to be able to pull out one case and have my entire setup in hand.  Fits my AK320, AK10, 3.5mm interconnect, 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter, mini-USB cable, CA Vega (in a repurposed soft zip case), with some room to spare to toss in my Samsung SSD and a USB key.  The cable holders are nice and snug.  
 
Anyways, for anyone that is looking for something similar, better grab one soon!  At $90, an Italian-made, California-designed case like this is a bargain.  I will look into the new version 2 at some point, because I really wanted a Cognac leather one.  
 
I really do hope one of these companies makes something purpose-built for the mobile audiophile. 
 
https://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod9610112&categoryId=cat9730028
https://thisisground.com/products/techdoppkit2?variant=32553284809
 
 
 

 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron-Buddha /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Having been into portable audio gear for a few years now, I really never looked into a solution to organize and carry my gear.   Since I carry a briefcase/messenger, and almost never a backpack, I ended up with my CA Vega's in the case it came with, my AK320 in a Caselogic nylon thing, and a separate vinyl thing to carry my AK10, USB cable and various adapters.  I found the three pouches required a ton of shuffling and zipping and unzipping to get setup.   

 

I normally use a backpack when I go to meets...

 

 

...but when I go to the HiFi show here I need to swing the bag around to the front easily (to get past people or to whip out gear with no space to set down a backpack first), so I brought my medium Timbuk2 messenger bag (my daily bag is the small size with my laptop; and I have Crumplers that don't fit laptops just for photography). I normally have the Crumpler Haven insert in my messengers (left), but since I needed more padded space, I pulled the camera compartment out of my Lowepro daybag and put it in there too. All the gear in the backpack photo were able to fit snug and secure in the messenger. Note that I also wear it  high on my back at an angle (ie how bike messenger bags are worn), but none of my gear suffered any damage.