No Records For A Month!
It’s crunch time. I’m about to pack up all of my belongings and head to the mainland. I don’t think I’ll be missing much, aside from MY RECORDS!!!
In an attempt at maintaining sanity, I’ve prepared a “No records music preparedness kit”. Since I’m going to be a transient for a month or so it’s time to upgrade my portable music solution.
Planning on doing more traveling I should have already completed this upgrade, but my trusty replacement earbuds from the airport have been going strong. I use them every day at the gym, and up until this past Friday haven’t had any problems. I lost one of those infernal earpiece gels. Ordering those online (with shipping to Hawaii) costs half as much as the earbuds.
While I won’t be using my UE Pro 5’s for the gym, they will be used for every thing else (so long as Apple hasn’t removed the inline mic functionaily for the iPhone 7 Plus and it’s lack of 3.5mm jack). Saying that makes me want to reconsider the iPhone remote/mic specification on my pair. Do I really want to hear my mom that far down my ear?
Headphones – These are some bad motherfuckers! For $600 they should be, and after having to go to a hearing aide store to get fitted for these custom in-ear monitors (IEM’s)…I’m expecting the world and then some (as much as $600 can buy anyway).
Sennheisers Momentum in ear – I wanted to get the UE Pro 5’s pretty bad, but then I thought about how many of Apple’s $79.99 earbuds I’ve lost over the years. These earbuds fit nicely in the ear, I prefer a tight fit and appreciate the passive noise canceling. Coming from my Airport Specials [image of both pairs] the sound quality difference is pretty big. The Sennheisers are more sensitive, and go about reproducing sound as the Germans make their cars…well balanced with little drama.
Using the Momentum with my Dragonfly Black, brought more details out of the familiar tunes. I don’t have a lot of, “oh shit that’s a huge difference” moments with my own gear. I will concede that the tangled mess from the pic above has seen better days, and are still my go to for the gym.
Portable DAC – OPPO HA-2 [SE] Watch my unboxing here. This is a sexy piece of gear. It’s leather wrap, and bead blasted and shiny aluminum body show attention to detail, and the sound is a couple of heads above my audio quest Dragonfly 1.5 (for 2X the price) and a lot more convenient that the camera kit/backup battery setup I was carrying around on the road.
I know some portable elitist will scoff at my setup and ask why I didn’t go with an A&K or even go with an actual Hi res portable player. Because they cost too much and are too niche.
Source – iPhone 6S Plus Yep the same one I wrote this post on. I use my phone for everything.
iPod Touch 64GB – I was going to spring for the 128GB but I don’t see taking that much hires music with me. I’ll be able to download my favorite albums from my library using Apple Music. Having signed up for a HDtracks account over three years ago and making zero purchases, tells you how much high res audio I currently have.
Using my phone is out of the question as it’s my primary camera for making videos, writing, and all the things phones used to be used for…like talking. Which reminds me, it’s time to wipe and restore.