[wanderman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1rocketpilot do you really need to listen to music during the 5 minute walk from your dorm to your class?

yes, it wasn't a 5 minute walk for me from glenn to boggs. Or caldwell to techsquare. With a decent portable a portable setup can be turned into a decent dedicated setup. Ever seen the h100's series stack.

 

[aznsensazian]

Boooyah!! Dedicated Rig all the way. It is so much more pleasing to the ear to listen to a nice dedicated set up when working on strenuous programming assignments. If you are going for a portable rig, i would go for the kiss perspective(Keep it simple stupid), just some headphones and a portable player is all you need. I had a fully decked out portable rig once with amps, dacs, headphones, etc and it was too cumbersome to carry around.

 

[Zuerst]

If youre going to live in the dorms, I would go portable. When I was living in the dorms I was pretty much only in my room to sleep, I'm out and about rest of the time so I went with a good IEM and a very portable flash player. IEMs are also good for those lectures where attendance is required but the quite useless otherwise.

 

[a1rocketpilot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanderman yes, it wasn't a 5 minute walk for me from glenn to boggs. Or caldwell to techsquare. With a decent portable a portable setup can be turned into a decent dedicated setup. Ever seen the h100's series stack.

Yay!! Another GT'er! You have a point, there are some walks that are longer than others, but even still, that only leaves enough time for 3-5 songs or so. If I am going to listen, I would want to listen for an extended period of time. To reiterate my previous point, for studying in the library or somewhere else (that is the only situation that comes to mind now where you would be able to use headphones outside of the dorm), sound quality isn't of utmost concern, as I would be concentrating on the studying first and listening second. Therefore, all you would really need is a portable source and some headphones. No need for an amp and good IC's and all that stuff.

Now what is this H100 stack you refer to? Something that I haven't heard of before...

Aditya

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuerst If youre going to live in the dorms, I would go portable. When I was living in the dorms I was pretty much only in my room to sleep, I'm out and about rest of the time so I went with a good IEM and a very portable flash player. IEMs are also good for those lectures where attendance is required but the quite useless otherwise.

Same here. I also used DAP + IEM at the gym. When I come home I don't have time to sit down and listen usually; I don't study with music. I spend much of my time in a biology lab, so the ampless portable route works very well in that situation.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Dedicated. They sound better.

And consider the social aspect of college. Throughout the various degrees, every time I set foot on campus, regardless of the time of day, I'd run into someone I knew within minutes. More often than not, that lead to eating, hanging out, etc. I'd never listen to headphones/IEMs with friends around, so a portable would have been useless.

Save your listening time for when you're home. There are too many friends to meet (and cute girls to chat with) to have something in your ears.

 

[gradofan]

I would definitely say, go portable and dedicated.

Someone mentioned finding out whether you stay in your room or are more likely to listen to music outdoors or in a library. I'd definitely do that, and then go a step further. Find out if your roommates party a lot, and if you can trust the people on your floor. The party thing can be horrible. If some drunken @ss spills beer on your rig, you could lose your gear. At least a portable system can go in the sock drawer.

 

[jbloudg20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by a1rocketpilot and do you really need to listen to music during the 5 minute walk from your dorm to your class?

Most of my walks from my on campus dorm to class are about 15-20 minutes.

 

[Jam_Master_J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by adhoc dedicated and portable; you can have the best of both worlds you know. portable - ipod > er4p dedicated - laptop > hagusb > zhaolu > headfive/hd-25 > rs1/k501

Same here:

I'm planning on bringing:
Dedicated - M-Audio Rev 7.1 -> Musical Fidelity X-DAC -> Millet hybrid with Diamond buffers -> AKG k701 and re-cabled beyerdynamic dt880

Portable - Rio Karma/ipod Nano -> Shure E4/KSC-75

 

[mateo05]

I had a portable rig and ended up listening to it as a dedicated rig. So, I'm moving in that direction (and pulling out every stop I have to do so

).

I thought that isolation would be a requirement, but you can have too much of a good thing. I can't tell you how many cell phone calls I missed using IEMs, and when I could use the isolation, the music was a distraction anyways. Also, while I was out and about, I was busy doing other things than listening to music, and during the few times where I was riding public transit for a long time (mostly to the airport), a book easily solved my boredom. You'll have to adjust for your own habits, but that's just some food for thought.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbloudg20 Most of my walks from my on campus dorm to class are about 15-20 minutes.

Ahh, UConn...

(my sister graduated from there and I have a bunch of friends there now)

I personally found that I preferred listening to nothing but ambient sound while walking around campus (cheesy I know). I once thought that I would use a portable rig a lot while chilling outside, but when I am I prefer no distractions at all. In any case, its just a preference thing.

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbloudg20 It is in my opinion, that nobody can tell you what you need to do. I would hold off the spending for now, and after a month or so, see what your tendencies are. If you are in your room most of the time, you know you'd probably like a dedicated rig. If you are out and about all the time portable. I have both, but my portable rig is not all that important to me. If I am out and about, the music is just to accompany me, and not for critical listening, so I don't care about the quality all that much.

As I was reading this thread I was thinking the exact same thing as this quote, until I got to it and realized someone beat me to posting it. jbloudg20 is wise (because he agrees with me).

At the moment I lack a home rig and use my portable rig almost solely as a home rig, because I can listen to music in bed with it. The computer (which would be used for home rig) is not as good an option since it's not as comfortable. I'd rather lie in my bed for 50 minutes listening as opposed to sit in the uncushioned chair for 50 minutes.

I'm not sure what I will do with my HD580 or if I will try to move over to a home rig when I get back to campus. Right now I don't have access to it so I don't know what route I will take myself.

 

[gradofan]

K2grey, awesome point about listening to music in bed. I set up my computer and main headphone rig right next to my bed, and that way I can listen before going to sleep or when I wake up. It beats the held out of most chairs I've listened in.