Gears to take when travelling aboard

Oh that's all you need, huh? Just a measly $2000+ of gear? Why didn't anyone tell me this?!

 

^ Yeah, but...

...I'd second this. This system is just so goddamn good that I find it hard to justify even owning anything else. But then again, that's probably just me being biased.

For what it is, a DAP + IEM is in general pretty damn stellar as far as simplicity and portability go, and should be the first thing that comes to mind when traveling IMO. Settle for phone + IEM if you can find a good pairing, I guess.

 

Just wrap it in a towel along with a bottle of lube and they'll stop asking questions.

 

I tried various combinations such as using a FiiO Mont Blanc E12 with a Samsung phone along with M40x, HD25, etc.The sound is good but on a plane for a few hours its really not worth the hassle to me to bring full size cans.

I get enough bass/tone/EQ control from the PowerAmp software in my phone using my own files ripped from CD's vs. the Fiio bass-boost that only does bass-boost. Although my IEM's are certainly better with the amp, I don't see a need even for that with ATH-E40 or SE215. I go for the good enough vs. the best I can do, if that makes any sense. Its simply a secondary thing for me.

If I would really need a full-size can, I would pick the HD25 out of my gear. On my head, they seal well and are much more comfortable with the split headband than the M40x. To me, the M40x is murder on my head after about thirty minutes or so, even with a third-party snap-on headband for extra padding. I could see using the HD25 walking in downtown Toronto (which is very close for me), but why bother? An IEM is pretty good on the subway as much as it is on a plane.

My travel preference is an IEM for size and overall simplicity as long as it seals well. Airplane engine hum is very fatiguing and headache inducing to me so it needs to be blocked out. I tried a full-size noise cancelling can once but it made no sense to me since it was basically open and it did nothing to remove voices and general chatter from what I recall. This, and the hiss I heard are the main reasons I don't own one. That tech may be way better now, but I see no reason to try it again. I stick with sealing out noise.

 

Yeah, me too, @ipm. I just use my phone + iem. I picked up a Shanling M1 so I'll probably use that next time.

 

The last time I traveled, I took a pair of vmoda m100s and an e07k (driven off the laptop).

Just picked up a set of Tennmak Pros - I think I'll just take them next time.

 

Cost is whatever it works for the traveler. I go with QP1R+ProPhile 8, which is even more expensive, but allows me to take a larger chunk of my music library (400GB total) and isolates my hearing pretty well on long SFO<->Europe flights. Given how much I travel, how much benefit I get from the right music for the situation, and how many years of traveling life I can expect, the cost of the gear is in the noise. How much is it worth being able to relax and arrive in LHR or ZRH a bit less stressed?

 

I understand. I'm not outraged at the cost or anything. It's just the statement of "That's all you need," struck me as a bit out of place since we're talking over 2 grand of gear.

 

Guess I look like a nerd or something...even my tube watch doesn't raise questions while traveling.

http://www.cathodecorner.com/nixiewatch/order.html

 

Generally I've found it's less about what gear you take than how you pack it. I once ran into a problem where I'd packed some books on top of audio gear, resulting in an x-ray image that looked like two rectangular blobs with wires sticking out. As you can imagine, that got my bag searched, though the TSA guy was really understanding once he saw what was actually in my bag (and actually knew what a portable headphone amp was!). These days, I make sure to pack electronics on top when I fly so the x-ray can get a good look at them.

I'm firmly in the "don't take anything travelling that you'd be too upset to lose" camp, so I generally don't take much expensive gear with me. I've got my GR8's for the plane, but I'm not much of an IEM guy so I generally also bring my SR225's for hotel-room listening. For sources I'll usually take a DAP (currently a Pono) and my Dragonfly dongle amp for use with my laptop.

 

Glad to see another Pono fan on the Forum, @nithhoggr ! That makes two of us now.

Edit: I see that you have a HD650. If you haven't tried the HD650 with the Pono (only with a balanced cable, not SE) you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

For as much hate as the Pono got for trying to be the ambassador of 24-bit FLAC to the mainstream market, it's a nice little piece of hardware. A lot of people seem to just focus on the high-res thing and never even look at the Pono's performance as a DAP.

I've used my HD580 (now sadly broken) with the Pono (as you say, balanced), and that sounded great, but I'm not sure I've tried the HD650 yet. I'll have to try that! (Especially given that I've already got the cable for it.)

 

Traveling with my full pound of copper brick that is the Sony NW-WM1Z and usually a set of IEMs or two (depending on what I'm testing at any time) I've had issues with TSA as well. And the worst part is, if they pull out my bag with my Pelican case of audio stuff in it (wondering what the brick shape with wires sticking out is) they tend to want to search the whole bag. Now I take the Pelican case out of my bag (even though I do TSAPrecheck almost exclusively so don't have to remove electronics) and put it on the belt by itself. I then walk through the metal detectors and wait at the other side of the x-ray machine. 90% of the time I quickly say "it's an audio player" when the TSA officer picks up the Pelican case and looks at it quizzically. These days that's enough to get it through almost all the time. Found it best to be proactive with these things!

 

I typically use Bose QC35 Bluetooth Noise Cancelling headphones when flying. The noise cancelling works well, and no cables to get tangled up. I pick the playlist I want to listen to on my iPad before boarding, and turn off WiFi on the iPad, so that I can simply turn on the Bose and press the play button without having to take the iPad out of my bag until after we’re in the air.

While the Bose work well for the flight, I also take a TEAC HA-P50 portable headphone amp/DAC and Westone 30 IEM’s to listen from the iPad while at the hotel, etc.

Bose for convenience, IEM’s for sound quality...